Intercom
by PotterPhantomKitten
Summary: Sometimes everyone hears a little voice in their head—a conscience, a guide, always there to give subtle advice but never to converse. But when an accident occurs in Headquarters, the "little voice" suddenly becomes five for Riley. Five that she can directly communicate with. And such encounters with the world inside her head can cause Riley's life to change, both inside and out.
1. Accident in Headquarters

**A/N: I actually had the idea for this fic LONG before I started Radiant, but after I had the dream that inspired Radiant I decided to go and start with that one first. XD Anyway, this fic has been a long time coming, and I always felt it would be kind of cool if Riley was somehow able to hear her emotions, so I decided to run with it!**

 **Edit 6/30: Just to make this clear: I started writing the fic before the movie came out, but having now seen the movie, it's set after the movie.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inside Out.**

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The night stars shone brightly above San Francisco, and the Andersen family was starting to get ready to sleep.

Riley, for the most part, had been in a pretty good mood that day. She got a good grade on her science report, managed to do well in her hockey game (she missed her mark once or twice, which provoked Anger, but at least her team had won in the end), and got to eat pizza with her family for dinner with not a speck of broccoli insight.

And a good day for Riley was a good day for Joy.

Turning off her light and getting into bed, Riley was lightly humming to herself, a merry little tune that she had heard on the radio that had been playing around in her head all day. As the young girl gazed up at her ceiling, another shimmering gold memory orb rolled into Headquarters in her mind. Joy picked it up and held it close before gazing at it proudly. Yet another moment of happiness for her and her emotions to treasure.

"Another day, another good memory to add to the collection!" she said brightly, placing it on the memory shelves next to the others. The shimmering emotion then paused, noticing Riley's eyes start to close. She moved a bit away from the orbs and the console, close to the ramp that led to where they slept, and pressing a small button on the wall. A light above a small intercom flicked on, glowing with a gold aura much like Joy herself.

"Say good night to Mom and Dad," she murmured quietly. True, she suspected the voice would only be heard as the faint "voice in the back of your head" that everyone seemed to experience once in a while, but at least it was something. Some indication of a little someone in her head guiding her.

Riley's eyes opened once more as she sat up, gazing toward the door. "Good night, Mom!" she called, a small grin on her face though it went unseen by the emotions. "Good night, Dad!"

"Good night, Riley" her mother called.

"Hope you had a great day today, sweetie!" her dad added.

"Yeah, I had a great day!"

Those words warmed Joy's heart to hear. Satisfied with her little bit of help, she switched the intercom off and bounded over to her emotion companions as Riley's eyes closed. "So, great day today, right guys?"

"Pretty good," Sadness said, giving one of her rare smiles.

"At least she got an A on that paper her teacher decided to give an insane amount of pages for," Disgust quipped. "I think teachers want to annoy the kids on purpose."

"Aw, come on, even if that is true, she did great!" Joy exclaimed, glowing happily as she stepped toward the console again, waving her hand. "You guys can head off to bed, it's my turn for Dream-Duty. Bet we've got a big day tomorrow!"

"It's just a Saturday," Disgust said, not really seeing what the big deal was as she and the others started to walk off,

"Yeah, but everyone knows Saturday is the best day of the week!"

Anger rolled his eyes a bit.

Joy called back to them cheerfully. "Good night, you guys!"

"Good night, Joy."

"See ya tomorrow."

"Hope Riley's dream is good."

As the other emotions headed toward the ramp that would lead up to the second floor, Anger glanced over at Fear with an irritated expression. "You know, I still think she could have got those hockey goals if _you_ hadn't been taking control so much!"

"What are you blaming me, for?!" Fear asked, jumping a little at Anger's accusation. "That one time the puck came whizzing right at her face! How else was she supposed to not get hit?"

"Easy," Anger said with a roll of his eyes as they walked toward the ramp. "She'd punch it out of the way like _this_!"

He slammed his fist into the wall as a demonstration, but instantly drew his hand back when his hand connected with something that wasn't the durable purple wall. In fact, it felt a bit more metallic and mesh-like.

His eyes widened and the others whirled around. He had slammed his fist right into the intercom Joy had been using earlier, the device sparking and the light blinking on and off in rapid succession. On. Off. On. Off.

The next time the light turned on, it stayed that way.

The five stared at it in silence. As they peered closer at the construct, they could see that some of the structure inside it seemed to have come loose, though the integrity of it seemed to hold. Not to mention the button seemed stuck.

Sadness was the first to speak, two quiet, simple words that were resonating in the heads of all five of the emotions. "Uh oh."

"Dang it!" Anger shouted, looking like he was about to strangle Fear as he stormed toward the purple emotion, who backed away with each step. "Now it's broken because of that little lesson in actually having a backbone when it comes to hockey pucks!"

Fear was about to respond to defend himself and retort that it was Anger's fault for punching in the first place, when suddenly they heard a scream from Riley, causing all five of them to turn toward the console screen. Eyes wide open once more as she sat up, Riley was rapidly looking left and right, hiding a little more under her covers, having cried out like she had been startled by something.

Fear instantly scurried away from where the intercom was and leapt at the controls, nearly knocking into Joy who was looking at the screen with confusion. Riley had screamed. A scream could be an action of surprise that was more serious than a gasp. Screams meant danger. It was his job to keep Riley safe from whatever it was that might hurt her and guide her away from it. But as he watched through Riley's eyes, he couldn't see any immediate danger. Everything looked the same as always. But he was still on edge, and that feeling resonated through Riley's consciousness. Fight or flight? Defend or run?

"Wonder what's got her spooked," Disgust commented, still near the intercom.

Riley whipped her head around again. "Who said that?!"

The emotions paused, a slow realization dawning on them. They looked from the monitor of Riley's sight to the slowly sparking Intercom. Then back at each other.

Fear's eyes grew wide as saucers and he looked like he was going to faint, Joy barely stopping him from doing so. He was so stunned that he barely managed to get his next sentence out. A sentence that he could barely believe he was uttering.

"… I think it's _us_ that's got her spooked!"

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 **A.N: There we go, first chapter! :) I have a bit of some other chapters written, so hopefully there won't be too much of a gap between updates. Hope you enjoyed this first bit, and remember to review!**


	2. Meeting The Little Voices

**A/N: I feel utterly blown away by how much praise this has received! Glad you all like it so much! :) Anyway, here's the next chapter, in which Riley interacts with the little voices inside her head for the first time!**

 **Disclaimer: I own a ticket to see Inside Out this week, but I don't own the movie.**

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"Okay... everybody move away from the intercom... and stay quiet..." Joy whispered.

All the emotions quietly began to step away from the device, Fear nearly crashing into the console even though he was plenty far away from the broken intercom. Disgust, Anger, and Sadness quickly but quietly joined them. It was as if they were walking through a very echoey canyon and had to keep their voices down in case of avalanches.

"Say nothing..."

Another yelp of shock from Riley as she scrambled to turn on her light, looking around nervously. They could hear her breathing a bit more heavily.

The five emotions looked at each other. Had that little shocked yelp been from her nervousness at the voices from before, or had she actually heard Joy's quiet whisper to say nothing? They weren't sure, and they weren't about to just go over and ask about it. How much could Riley hear? Just the voices nearest to the intercom, or everything in Headquarters? Even the scurrying of an emotion's feet? What if she went crazy from it? That was the last thing they wanted!

The emotions looked at the intercom as if it was a violent hornets' nest. As far as they were concerned, it was definitely a metaphorical one. This kind of thing hadn't happened before. They hadn't even known it was _capable_ of happening. And yet, here they were, with Riley being able to actually hear them.

Not good.

Riley's parents then burst into the room, looking worried. The five beings in Headquarters shut up immediately.

"Riley, what's wrong?" Mrs. Andersen asked, her eyes widened and looking around for any sign of danger.

"Are you okay?" questioned her dad.

Riley tried to calm herself as she felt her heart pounding in her chest as she was glancing around, still nervous. "I... I thought I heard someone."

The emotions stood still as statues, barely even breathing.

The older Andersens frowned in concern. They carefully glanced around Riley's room for anything that might be scaring her. Her father opened her window and looked around, seeing if there was anyone outside just to be safe. There was no one in sight. Shutting her window again, Riley's parents sat down next to her and pulled her into a hug.

"There's no one around here that's going to hurt you," her mother said soothingly, stroking Riley's hair. A thought seemed to occur to her, her eyes widening a bit before she glanced down at her daughter. "Did you hear it right as you were about to fall asleep?"

Riley nodded, barely looking them in the eyes. "Yeah."

Her mother relaxed. "You know," she said with a gentle smile. "It's pretty common for people to hear some sort of voice when they're drifting off to sleep."

Riley looked up at her hopefully, feeling a bit more at ease at her mother's reassurance. "It is?"

"I think it's something we've all experienced once in a while, Riley," her father said. "I know I have. Don't worry about it." He gave her a reassuring smile. "Just try to get some sleep and everything will be fine in the morning."

Riley nodded, feeling a little better, relieved that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with what she had heard. "Okay."

"Good night, Riley," her mother said, gently kissing her forehead before turning off her light. The pair gave Riley soft smiles before leaving Riley alone for the night.

"Didn't you once say you heard voices arguing about what flavor of cotton candy was better?" Mrs. Andersen was heard quietly as they went down the hall.

"It was after we took Riley to that carnival, I think I had an excuse!" her husband protested.

Riley couldn't help but giggle to herself. Whether they meant for her to hear or not, the story was comforting.

Joy was glad that Riley had laughed in that moment, seeing as it was just enough to disguise Joy's own chuckles.

Once they were certain the parents were gone, the emotions made sure they were far enough away from the intercom, even backing away from the console and closer to the memory orbs, uncertain of the extent of Riley's hearing now that a direct two-way connection had been established between them. They waited a few more tense seconds before they spoke between one-another again in whispers.

"Now what?!" Anger hissed. "That intercom's just supposed to be used for small conscience-voice-talking _only_! Now she can actually clearly _hear_ us!" The top of his head started to flare up. "Do you have any idea how bad this could be?!"

"I know, I know!" Fear insisted, taking even more steps away from the intercom to the point where he was backed up against one of the shelves where the memory orbs were kept. "I-I know this could be bad! This could be very, _very_ bad! This **_is_** very bad!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Disgust deadpanned. Despite her nonchalant tone, the expression on her face showed the worry they all felt.

"Guys!" Joy exclaimed while keeping her voice soft, causing the others to silence their quarreling and look at her. She smiled to try to help put everyone at ease. "Let's just take this calmly and with a positive attitude."

"'Positive attitude'?" Disgust echoed in a more skeptical tone. "How are we supposed to take _this_ in a positive attitude?! We don't know how much Riley can hear so we'll have to talk to each other in whispers like this even at the console, or learn sign language to talk to one another or something!"

"I know a bit of sign language," Sadness offered, trying to be helpful.

"Lot of good that does the rest of us," Anger snapped, crossing his arms.

Joy took a deep breath, looking from her friends to the screen that let them see things through Riley's eyes. It was clear that trying to sign-language their way through a day for Riley would be unlikely to turn out well, especially with the majority of their group not knowing a gesture of it. Even if they managed to somehow stumble their way through a day of that with Sadness's help, doing so through a lifetime would drive them all bonkers.

There was only one solution she could think of that didn't involve tearing the intercom to bits—that might just allow the girl to hear all of Headquarters if she couldn't already!

She looked over at the intercom as if it were the end goal in an obstacle course. "... I'll try talking to her."

The others' mouths dropped open simultaneously.

" _What?!_ " they exclaimed in a collective whisper.

"Talking to—are you _crazy_?" Anger exclaimed, gripping Joy's hand to stop her and causing her to turn. He had nearly forgotten that Riley might be able to hear them even here. "Do you realize that might psychologically hurt her?!"

"Well, she heard us, and if she just hears us at the console tomorrow she's gonna freak out!" Joy looked at the red emotion. "Talking to her directly is the better option right now, because if we talk tomorrow she'll at least know what's going on!" She gave him an encouraging grin. "Come on, trust me on this!"

Anger fell silent, letting go of Joy's hand. He let out a huff of irritation.

But Fear wanted to convince Joy otherwise. "Joy, this could go wrong, this could put her in—"

"Fear," Joy said with a reassuring smile as she put her hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay." Noticing he had calmed down very slightly at her touch, she removed her hand and walked over toward the intercom, her voice still a low whisper. "I'll just talk to her and help her get to know us. Plus, it's night time and she'll think she's dreaming, so if she hears us tomorrow she won't be as freaked out. Better to introduce ourselves first now than during the day..."

Fear swallowed, still looking like he was going to have a conniption.

Joy tried to offer a gentle smile. "What could happen?"

 _What could happen?_ The cursed question. Fear could think of a hundred answers to that question, and nearly all of them were bad. But before he could rattle off any of them, it was too late—Joy had already reached her destination.

Joy cleared her throat, the other emotions daring to move a little closer though they were sure to stay silent. She vaguely wondered if this was what first contact with aliens would feel like if it happened one day.

She couldn't believe she was doing this. But she wasn't sure if there was any other way for Headquarters to function as normal at this point.

"Riley?"

Fear cringed as Joy said their host's name. The hornets' nest was kicked and there was nothing he could do about it. The others held their breath, on edge as if expecting Riley to scream again.

As the emotions had been conversing concerning what to do about their new situation, Riley had let her thoughts drift, trying to focus on sleeping. For that brief time, she had been able to convince herself that the voices she had heard were just what her parents had described, and was nearly succeeding in drifting off into dreamland. But now one voice was back and clear again. She kept her eyes closed, though the blackness behind her eyelids grew a bit brighter as her eyes widened very slightly.

Joy dared herself to talk again. "Riley. We want to talk to you."

Riley's eyes opened again as she looked around, then upward slightly. She was becoming more and more certain that the voices—which seemed to be coming from inside her head—weren't a product of her mind drifting off to sleep after all. She was more awake now thanks to this voice, and it was as clear as her parents' voices had been when they were comforting her. Like it or not, she could tell it wasn't going to go away yet. This voice was too clear, too direct, to be a half-asleep voice.

Unless she was dreaming. Yeah, she had to be dreaming.

"H-How do you know my name?" Riley looked around again, unable to keep her quiet voice from wavering a little. "Who are you? _Where_ are you?!"

Fear looked like a nervous wreck. Poor Riley was getting more anxious by the second, and he couldn't protect her from its cause. How could he, when the danger Riley perceived was _him_ and the others?

Joy took a deep breath, wanting to help Riley be more calm, though she herself felt almost as nervous as Fear. She almost found it to be an exciting kind of nervous though. "We're... we're your emotions, Riley. We're inside your head."

"Huh?" Riley's gaze turned upward. "You're... my _emotions_?"

"Yup!"

Riley forced out a vocalization that sounded somewhere between a nervous laugh and a sigh. "Emotions can't talk…" The 12-year-old began to wonder if she was losing her mind, hoping that she was instead just dreaming. Yeah, dreaming, that _had_ to be the explanation…

"Well, we can," Joy said kindly. "I'm Joy, your main emotion."

Though they couldn't see it, Riley's expression changed to one of curiosity despite her confusion. "Is that why I have so many happy memories?"

Joy grinned, feeling a bit proud of herself. "Yupper! That's, heh, all thanks to me, not to brag!"

"Show-off," Disgust muttered, rolling her eyes.

Riley seemed a little more curious now, having vaguely heard a voice that sounded different from Joy's. "Are there… other living emotions in my head?"

"Well, yeah, there's five of us," Joy said, waving a hand over to the others. She actually was feeling a bit more comfortable about this, and Riley wasn't freaking out too much. Night really had been the right time to introduce themselves—better than the day when she couldn't pass it off as dreaming.

"Come over here and say hello, guys!"

The other four looked at one another, wondering if this was a good idea. But now that the damage was done, they figured there wasn't much of a choice. Riley knew they were there now. With hesitant looks at one another, the gang gathered around the intercom. They all were silent for a moment, uncertain of what to say to their host, but finally it was Sadness who spoke first.

"Hi, Riley," Sadness said quietly. "I'm Sadness."

Riley frowned a little. "You're Sadness?"

The blue emotion nodded, before remembering Riley couldn't see the gesture. "Yeah... I am."

"I don't feel sad too much. I mean, good thing I don't but—"

"Yeah," Sadness said with a slightly sheepish tone, "I don't really seem to do much around here. But sometimes you need to have a good cry… right?" The 'right' was said in a way that questioned if she was really welcomed by Riley after all. True, all emotions were necessary in some way, but Riley wasn't exactly a psychologist. She was a 12-year-old who had mostly been chipper and cheerful before the move to San Francisco a year ago.

"I… guess?" Riley arched her brow a little. She knew that crying could be good for letting out bottled up bad feelings, so she supposed that was what Sadness meant. Sometimes it was good to feel sad, even though it was a feeling that Riley most often preferred not to feel. But she wanted to choose her words carefully, not wanting Sadness to feel bad. "Nice to... meet you."

 _I'm trying not to hurt my feelings' feelings?_ Riley thought to herself. _Man, my dreams are weird sometimes._

Sadness managed a small smile. Riley thought it was nice to meet her. Which meant Riley kind of liked her.

Riley couldn't believe it, but she was actually starting to feel more at ease conversing with these voices. At the very least, they didn't seem scary. Pretty nice dream compared to some she had had.

 _I'm just dreaming,_ she thought. _Like one of those dreams where it seems like I'm awake in my room but I'm not, and tomorrow it will be like I never heard them at all._ The possibility that the voices were actually real was something she'd concern herself with later, assuming they persisted. Which they wouldn't, she felt sure of that. But for now, at least, she'd play along. At least this dream was a good one.

After a few cautious glances between one another, Anger decided to take his turn next.

"Hey, Riley," he said.

Riley glanced at the top of her head quizzically, making a sound somewhere between a short laugh and a huff. She sat up, her back leaning against the headboard. "Wait, there's a _guy_ in my head?"

Joy had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

"You got a problem with that?" Anger asked, sounding a bit irritated.

"I guess not..."

The red emotion rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I'm Anger."

Riley's own eyes widened a bit. The girl's tone was suddenly more accusatory. "Wait, _you're_ the reason I get in trouble sometimes?"

Joy smiled a little at Anger's indignant expression, his small smile having instantly vanished.

"Hey, I'm just here to try to make sure that things are fair for ya," he said, trying not to let his temper flare up again.

"Well, if I ever get in trouble," Riley said with a slightly mischievous grin that the emotions couldn't see, "I'll just blame you."

"Wha—hey!"

"I'm kidding," she said. "Sort of."

The other emotions laughed. Anger crossed his arms and scowled more than usual.

"We may cause the feelings and guide you into acting," Anger added, sounding a little bitter, "but for the most part _you_ decide how you're gonna respond to them." He gave the screen a stern look, as it was the closest he could get to looking at Riley. "So don't blame _us_ for what _you_ do."

Riley shook her head slightly in amused exasperation.

"My turn, I guess," Disgust said with a shrug, finding some amusement in Anger's sulking. "I'm Disgust. I protect you from getting poisoned by things like bad food."

Riley smiled a little. "Like broccoli?"

"Yes," Disgust said, "like broccoli."

"The worst of all vegetables." Riley paused, glancing up toward her head as she realized that she and Disgust had said that at the same time. There was light laughter from all of them, save Anger who was still sulking.

"It's not just food, you know," Disgust said, "I prevent you from getting poisoned socially too. You know, away from bad influences, old fashion trends, that kind of stuff. Stuff that you really don't need to be around."

"Well, you've been good at it so far," Riley said.

"Just doing my job," Disgust said with a hint of pride, looking at the others with a confident smirk.

Riley had been keeping careful track of linking each voice to its owner—sure this was a dream, but it was a pretty entertaining one. "So that's four of you guys, who's the last one?"

"Fear," Joy said. She looked over at the purple emotion, who was looking quite jittery. "Come on, Fear, your turn!"

Fear didn't open his mouth. He just darted his eyes back and forth and nervously drummed his fingers.

"Fear? Earth to Fear? Come on, say hello!"

"But…" Fear wanted to say that he still felt like this was a bad idea that could spell disaster for Riley. But she had already heard and talked to the other four. No going back now. After an internal war with himself, he finally found his voice. "Hey, um, Riley." His voice came out as a squeak and he tried to compose himself a bit more. "I-I'm Fear." He wrung his hands together, anything to try to calm himself down and distance himself from the dangers of the fact that _they were actually talking to Riley_. "I'm the one who, you know, keeps you from getting hurt."

"Like that one time I thought I was going to fall off the playground slide in preschool?" Riley questioned.

"Well, yeah," he admitted. He tried to sound calmer, but inwardly he was freaking out, mentally flinching every time Riley replied. _We're talking to Riley. We're_ talking _to_ Riley _. We shouldn't be_ able _to talk to Riley, not good, not good, **not good!**_

"Mom and Dad kept telling me it was safe though, and I loved it after I actually went on it."

"Well, you, uh, never know," Fear pointed out, managing to break himself out of his endless cycle of worrying about all this. "There's danger everywhere, even when you least expect it." _Like danger in talking to you._

"Well, thanks for looking out for me," Riley said, trying to cheer the nervous guy up. It only marginally worked.

"Uh, no problem."

Riley smiled, but then mumbled a little. They noticed on the screen that Riley's eyes were partially beginning to close.

"You tired, Riley?" Disgust asked.

Riley nodded. "A-A little," she managed, fighting back a yawn. She didn't voice how weird she thought it was to feel tired during a dream. Acknowledging it directly might wake her up, and she had to admit that the voices were pretty entertaining for dream-voices.

"Well, we don't want to keep you from getting to sleep," Joy said sympathetically. "We'll be here in the morning if you want to talk more, okay?"

"O…kay?" The hesitation in Riley's voice was clear, evidentially thinking that she was still dreaming.

 _This is_ such _a bad idea!_ Fear thought.

"Good night, Riley!" Joy called cheerfully.

They couldn't see the small smile on Riley's face. "Good night, I guess."

"Good night!" the emotions echoed.

"See you in the morning!" Joy exclaimed as a final send-off.

Riley shrugged, turning her gaze up to her ceiling and letting her conscious thoughts drift off.

As they noticed Riley's eyes starting to close, the emotions moved away from the intercom and up the ramp to where they slept, staying silent so as not to disturb Riley. Once they were far enough away, following the others upstairs, a grin spread across Joy's face. She felt immensely relieved and looked to be glowing more than usual. "See guys? I told you, talking to her worked out fine! She didn't freak out, and she was totally cool with us!"

The others didn't quite share her enthusiasm.

"Oh yeah?" Disgust said. "Just wait until she wakes up."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Joy said, trying to reassure them. "She knows we exist, it'll be easier!"

Joy tried to ignore the doubt that she was beginning to feel and turned to Fear. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah," Fear stammered. He had been so anxious about tonight's events that he had completely forgotten that someone needed to watch Riley's dreams. And with it being Joy's turn, she might try to reach through and talk to Riley again. Which only increased the likelihood of making things worse.

Joy noticed his anxiety. "Hey, this won't be so bad. I told you it would work out."

Noticing that the other emotions had gone off to sleep, Fear spoke in a rapid, hushed tone. "Joy, this isn't gonna turn out well! Sure, Riley was okay tonight, but she thought she was still _dreaming_! You said 'see you in the morning'! If she hears us tomorrow—"

"Then we'll talk to her quietly and everything will be fine," Joy assured him. "Just trust me."

Fear looked uncertain, but the gentle smile on Joy's face put him a little more at ease. It wasn't easy getting his frantic mannerisms under control, especially in a situation like this. "Okay."

She grinned. "Good night, Fear!"

"Good night, Joy," he said quietly, watching her take her place near the console before he went upstairs as well. Reaching his room, he slowly fell back onto his bed and let out a slow sigh, thinking of how they were going to deal with the next day.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?"

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 **A/N: Well, now Riley had a bit of interaction with her emotions... but how will she react when she hears them in the morning? I hope to have the next chapter up in a few days. Hope you enjoyed and remember to review!**


	3. Well, This is Awkward

**A/N: OVer 50 reviews and over 100 faves and alerts already?:o That's way more than I was expecting so early, thanks everyone!**

 **Oh, here's a fun fact you might find interesting: Apparently, two of the original ideas for Inside Out were Riley going inside Headquarters though a dream to help her emotions after she was going through emotional troubles, and another where Joy would be a kind of shoulder angel for Riley, then when she got lost the other emotions would come out to find her. How awesome would that have been?:o :D**

 **Well, I won't keep you waiting anymore, here's the next chapter, involving a bit of awkwardness with the emotion gang!**

 **Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Inside Out.**

 **Edit: Forgot to mention: Yes I saw Inside Out, and yes it was AWESOME!**

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Fear had been unable to get a wink of sleep all night.

He had tossed, turned, bit the tips of his fingers, raced over to the windows, and put his pillow over his head to try to convince himself it was all a dream and he should just _go to sleep already_.

But he couldn't.

Even trying to count sheep didn't work. He only got to about five before he remembered that Riley's mom had suggested that years ago. Which made his thoughts turn back to Riley. Which in turn directed his mind to the fact that Riley could hear them.

And that further sent his worries into a rabbit hole. What if Riley could hear them even when she slept? What if she could hear the entirety of Headquarters? It would be like she was always watching them!

The purple emotion slapped himself across the face. "Dang it, now it's like I'm afraid of Riley hearing us!... am I?" He was beginning to wonder if the unease he felt about this was for Riley's sake or his own.

It seemed to take forever before the darkness and stars outside Headquarters vanished, the sky brightening with morning light. Fear put his pillow over his head again.

Maybe Riley didn't need him today. Maybe he could call in sick and just say he came down with a case of 'WorrythatRileycanhearus-itis'. Could worry be inflamed? Well, in Fear's mind it could. His worry was so inflamed he felt like he might spontaneously combust.

But who knew what kind of trouble Riley could get into if she couldn't feel fear anymore?

Reluctantly, he exited his room, glancing anxiously at Sadness, Anger, and Disgust who had already started down to the main part of Headquarters. Still on edge, he followed.

"J-Just, everyone stay quiet, okay?" he whispered, twiddling his fingers as he trailed behind them.

"Good morning, guys!" Joy exclaimed, waving them over as she saw the other emotions walking down the ramp. "Sleep well? I've got some great things planned for today! We're ready to—"

Fear's eyes widened. She was being way too loud considering yesterday! They'd need to play it safe, Riley could hear! He practically sprinted to the console, nearly knocking Joy down as he put a hand over her mouth, nearly falling on part of the console but still hitting a button on accident and lighting up the bottom with a purple glow. "No, STOP, STOP! Joy, what are you DOING, she'll—"

"Wait, what?!" A cry of shock echoed from the intercom and reverberated through Headquarters. From the screen that showed the world through Riley's eyes, the young girl had practically flown out of bed, stumbling onto the floor in surprise. She glanced up toward the top of her head hesitantly as she tried to catch her breath.

Anger facepalmed.

"So much for 'everyone stay quiet'," Disgust quipped, making air quotes at Fear's earlier phrase.

Joy instantly froze as did the others. She hadn't suspected Riley could hear from over there! "Oops," Joy said quietly before calling a bit. "Haha, sorry about that, Riley!"

Fear practically collapsed onto the console, sleep deprivation and anxiety getting to him. This was bad.

"You're… you're real?" Riley gasped, aware that her heart was racing. "You're real… I wasn't dreaming you…"

"Nope, you weren't!" Joy called, managing a slight grin, secretly delighted to hear Riley's voice addressing them. She gently tried to ease Fear off the console and hold him steady. "Still here!".

Riley closed her eyes and forced herself to relax, but her heart was pounding in her ears. Inside Headquarters, the newspaper Anger was reading suddenly changed its headline, and the article with it: " **THE EMOTION VOICES ARE REAL?!** "

"And just as I was reading the article about her 'crazy dream', the red emotion muttered. Though the fact that Riley had freaked out and the intercom was not magically fixed was still troubling.

Fear was in the verge of slamming his head on the console for how chaotic things were already. He looked from the console to the intercom, rubbing his hands together almost as a nervous gesture. "Okaayyy, how are we gonna do this..."

"Come on, we'll just do what we normally do in a day!" Joy exclaimed, placing her arm around Fear. "Only this time we can actually talk to Riley!"

Fear looked at her with widened eyes. This could have catastrophic consequences and yet Joy seemed convinced it could be the best thing ever!

Having calmed down a little more, Riley went over to gather up her clothes for the day. Her hand hovered over a bright green shirt before Disgust pressed some buttons in the center, the board lighting up with her signature green hue.

"That's a _bit_ too bright for this kind of day," she chided. "What about that sky blue shirt with the racing clouds on it?"

Riley frowned at the shirt she had picked up and placed it back in the closet again, searching for her jeans and sky-blue shirt to put on for the day.

"Good idea!" Joy piped up, adding her own emotional input. "It's nice weather, it'll match the day! Great choice, Disgust!"

"Just doing my job," Disgust said with a smug grin.

A memory orb that was a mixture of green and yellow rolled in, and the two emotions smiled at one another.

Anger shoved his way forward. "You do realize that's probably _not_ the best thing to say to her, right?" he asked, the console turning red in addition.

Disgust looked at him in confusion. "What? Would that make Joy jealous?"

"I'm not jealous," Joy assured.

"Not saying that to _Joy_!" Anger muttered with a growl. "Saying that to _Riley_!"

As Riley registered exactly what Disgust, Joy, and Anger were saying, their feelings, and their meanings, she stopped. Her eyes widened a bit, her expression one of confusion. Standing up, she glanced up toward her head as if she could see her emotions and spoke to them, quietly. Her voice was near-monotone, but in a way that indicated there was something she disliked.

With Anger and Disgust being the ones giving the main input on the large console, those feelings came forth in her mind. But for the first time, her emotional response wasn't directed to something from the outside world.

It was directed at _them_.

"... You try to give me advice on what clothes to wear."

"That's kind of her job." Anger pointed out, not seeing a problem with it at the moment. Day-to-day stuff for Riley Kaitlyn Andersen, no big deal. "She is Disgust, after all."

Fear's eyes were wide, realizing where this was going.

"Wait, so... you guys watch me _change clothes?!_ " With three of her emotions at the console, Riley felt slightly fearful, somewhat angry, and mostly disgusted. _Definitely_ disgusted.

The emotions looked at one another. They focused so much on guiding Riley in her day-to-day life for the past 12 years that they never really gave it all that much thought before today. After all, it wasn't like she could ever know, so why bother?

Except now she knew. And her approval rating on them was now significantly lower.

"Um... _Sorry_?" Joy said with a hesitantly sheepish drawing out of the word, at a loss for what else to say.

"Now that I think about it," Disgust said, scrunching up her face, "that is kind of... weird."

"So we were basically spying for 12 years," Sadness lamented.

"No, no, we weren't!" Joy said quickly, trying to cheer Sadness up and ease Riley's worries at the same time. "We're just guardians, spying would be, like, a _wrong_ thing!" She looked around at her companions. "And we always try to do what's right, right?"

"I-It's not like we watch you!" Fear exclaimed quickly, trying to console Riley. "W-We just see what you see! Just to guide you and make sure you don't rip a shirt, or hit your head on the shower door, or—"

That didn't help Riley's mood in the slightest as more thoughts registered in her head. They saw the very edges of her vision seemed to increase slightly in scope, indicating her eyes were widened. "Wait, you watch me _shower_ too?!"

For a few seconds, Headquarters was utterly silent. After a few tense moments, the only response from the little voices inside her head was a collective, nervous, "Ummm..."

At hearing this response, Riley stayed silent. Staring straight ahead as if the console had been switched off. A reaction which suddenly changed as she dropped the shirt and started running before she flung herself onto her bed, burying her head in her pillow so the emotions saw only blackness. She mumbled something, but thanks to the pillow the emotions couldn't hear.

"Um, what was that, Riley?" Sadness asked, almost afraid to know.

A little bit of light returned to Riley's vision as she lifted her head up. "I have people in my head who watch me shower," she muttered through gritted teeth before her face met the pillow once more.

"Now you've done it," Anger mumbled, glaring at the nerve-like emotion.

" _Me_?!" Fear babbled. "What did _I_ do?!"

"You told her about the shower thing," Disgust pointed out.

" _I_ wanted everyone to be quiet." Fear held up his head and tried to appear dignified.

"A suggestion which _you_ were the first one to break." Disgust's voice was utterly deadpan.

Fear's expression fell. The only solace for him about this whole situation was that Riley's parents luckily wouldn't suspect a thing if she was hanging in her room for a bit. Probably just assume she was getting ready for the day. So for now, it was just her and the little voices inside her head.

"So, um..." Riley paused, trying to think of how to word this without freaking out. If these voices really were little emotion beings in her head—and thus, not going away anytime soon—it wasn't like she could do anything about it even if she was disturbed by their apparent constant spying. She lifted her head from her pillow and sat on her bed, her legs hanging over the edge. "What do you guys look like? I mean, do you look like anything or are you just disembodied voices?"

"We're not disembodied," Joy assured, at least glad Riley wasn't giving them the silent treatment. "We have bodies! Well, not flesh-and-blood stuff like you do, just..." She paused, trying to think of a good way to word it.

"Particle thingies," Disgust suggested.

"Yeah, particles, basically!"

"Maybe we can tell you what we look like and you can draw us."

The other emotions looked at Sadness. The blue emotion wore a sheepish smile on her face, which turned into a shy frown when she saw everyone looking at her. "It was just an idea."

"Yeah," Disgust said, her arms crossed and looking actually impressed. "But it's a good idea."

Joy gave Sadness a congratulatory pat on the on the back before looking up at the screen again. "What do you think, Riley?"

Still find the whole thing weird, Riley put her hands on her lap. "Well, I was going to go around the town today with Mom and Dad," she said. "You guys can help tell me what you look like when we get back home and I'll... try to draw—"

"Riley, you up?"

The six of them paused as they recognized the voice as Riley's mom. "Yeah, Mom!"

"Are you almost ready to go?"

"Be right down!" Riley called. Sighing a bit and making sure she had everything, she spoke quickly in a hushed tone. "Just... pretend I can't hear you. Do whatever you guys normally do in a day. At least until we get home."

Apprehensive glances were shared among the emotions.

"You sure?" Sadness asked.

Riley's vision moved up and down in a slight nod. "I can't exactly talk to you clearly in front of them."

While there were murmurs of uneasy agreement from the other emotions, Fear didn't say a word. This could only end badly.

"Okay, everybody!" Joy exclaimed, clapping her hands. "We're gonna have a good day around San Francisco today! Right?"

"Right!"

* * *

"Maybe we could go to that one inlet where you can get a great view of the Golden Gate bridge after we go to that museum!"

"Why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge, anyway?"

"Should be called the Red Steel Bridge."

Fear scrambled at the console. "Tree root, tree root, look out!"

Riley practically stumbled over said tree root, but thanks to Fear managed to avoid falling on her face.

"Whew, saved you, Riley, that root could have smashed your face!"

"She said don't talk to her!"

"I'm just acknowledging I saved her life!"

"From a _tree root_?"

"Yeah!"

"I thought you were afraid to talk to her!"

"I kind of am, but I thought she should—"

"Be quiet!"

"Be nice!"

Riley wanted to cover her ears. Sure the voices were kind of entertaining. Even friendly.

But she felt like screaming at them to just _shut up already!_

* * *

 **A/N: Poor Riley, not exactly having the best of luck with her first day at hearing the emotions! Apologies that this chapter took a bit longer than intended, I was trying to figure out where would be a good point to include certain things, so the general "Riley learns more about the mind world" stuff will be included more in the next chapter, which I will definitely get up at a quicker time frame! Hope you enjoyed it! Remember to review! :)**


	4. You Mean I Look Like Broccoli?

**A/N: I'm thrilled with how much you guys love this! Over 100 reviews is way more than I expected from just the first 3 chapters—I thought it might get there eventually, but wow!:D Anyway, time for Riley to learn a bit more about the little voices that exist in her head!**

 **Also, to clarify a bit, I wrote the first two chapters before I saw the movie, hence the "written pre-movie" bit. Though now that I've seen the film, I can confirm it takes place after, and there will be elements to reflect that.**

 **Also, I made an Inside Out forum on Proboards .com if anyone's interested in joining! Just search 'inside out forum proboards' (no quotation marks) and you should find it. :)**

 **Disclaimer: I own the fic, that's all.**

* * *

Throughout the day, especially on those few occasions where Anger was in control (such as the one awesome pizza place they found in the city, Pizza Planet, being closed for renovations), Riley tried not to explode. This yammering about in her head was what they did all day? They had done this _each and every day_ since they appeared?

She liked them personality-wise and all, but it was already driving her nuts! She never realized her head was so crowded before.

 _I'll probably get used to it,_ she thought as she and her parents returned home as the fading sunlight reflected off the water and the Golden Gate Bridge. The thought then surprised her. _Get used to it? How the heck would I ever get used to **this**?!_

Both Riley and her emotions were glad to be home again, though the emotions had to admit they felt a bit anxious when it would be just the six of them. They had done as Riley had asked, doing what they normally did, but it was a bit difficult at times when even the emotions were uncertain how to deal with the fact that Riley could now hear them.

It led to a few extremely colorful memory orbs that day.

After telling her parents she was going upstairs to do her homework—which was true, it just wouldn't be the _only_ thing she was doing—Riley went up to the bathroom and carefully shut the door. She looked in the mirror, giving the emotions a view of her eyes seeming to stare into themselves. Like she was searching for something...

Anger approached the console. "Um, Riley, what's up with the—"

The 12-year-old lightly slammed her fist on the counter, glaring at her own reflection seeing as that was the closest thing she could get to glaring at the little voices inside her head.

"Uh oh," Anger said, backing away a bit. 'She's mad at us!"

"Emotions having their emotions turned on them?" Disgust commented. "That is weird—"

But Riley interrupted, Anger's influence manifesting in her psyche as frustration, though directed at a far different source than normal. "Are you guys _always_ that chatty in my head?!"

There was a brief pause.

"Yeah," Sadness admitted.

"Pretty much," Joy added.

Anger shrugged. "It's a day job."

Riley placed her elbows on the counter, her hands slowly trailing down the front of her face as she stared into her own eyes as if searching for the emotions behind them. With Joy having more command of the console now, she couldn't stay too mad at them. The little emotions were just trying to help, after all. "Why couldn't I hear you before now, anyway?"

Fear laughed a bit nervously. "Well, heh, funny story about that..."

"There's an intercom here in Headquarters that allows one of us to be that kind of voice-in-the-back-of-your-head thing," Joy explained. She glanced toward the intercom in question. "Anger decided to do a bit of a hockey power demonstration, he smashed the intercom by accident, and well..." She put her hands up in the air, unable to keep the happy smile off her face. "Here we are!"

Riley arched her brow. "So that occasional voice in the back of my head was you guys?"

"Sure was!"

"And now you've got five of us," Disgust pointed out.

"So now I'm going to hear you guys for the rest of my life?"

"Well, umm... maybe we just ought to get the mind workers to fix it," Fear insisted, pressing some buttons on the console and hoping that he would be able to instill enough fear in Riley to just get this whole problem fixed up. "Then tadah, no more voices!" He smiled, looking quite pleased with the idea.

The worried frown that crossed Riley's face, however, ended up backfiring from what Fear had hoped. Riley looked at her reflection almost shyly, her eyes slightly downward. "...But I'm not sure I _want_ it to be fixed."

"Huh?"

This had been about the last response Fear had expected. After the chaos of today, he thought that the mind workers fixing the intercom was a done deal, a given, something that their host would agree to the moment the opportunity came up.

"At least, not right now," Riley clarified. "I mean..." There seemed to be a sense of wonder in her eyes. "I want to learn more about you guys. I mean, what's it like in there?"

Joy pulled a memory orb from the shelf of short-term memories. "Also, you said you were gonna do homework, remember? Great time to draw!"

Riley's eyes lit up. "Oh, right, thanks Joy!" She rushed out of the bathroom and back to he room, spreading out her textbooks on the table. Doing a few math problems first so then technically she did some of her homework beforehand), she tore out a page from the back of her notebook.

"Okay, what do you guys—"

"Oh, colored pencils!" Joy exclaimed, calling up a memory from Long Term. "We need colored pencils for this! There we go, memory of their location right on time!"

Riley laughed. "Don't worry, I remem— _waitaminute_." She frowned. "Did I remember that on my own or...?"

"Called it," Sadness said. "Got it from Long Term Memory.

Riley furrowed her brow as she looked through the storage container in her room for the colored pencils. "So wait, do you do that with _all_ my memories?"

"It's kind of how they wor—"

"Hold on." Riley put her hands up, closing her eyes and interrupting Disgust. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this." She quickly picked up the colored pencils as hurried back to her desk, spreading them out and trying to stop thinking about her thought processes. "Okay, first things first—what do you look like?"

"Oh, oh, I'll go first, I'll go first!" Joy exclaimed, raising her hand as if she was in school.

"Actually, Joy," Sadness said, tapping her arm, "may I go first?"

Joy paused. She had been about to say Sadness could go second, but she offered her friend a smile. "Sure, Sadness, go ahead!"

"Okay..." Sadness began. "Well... I'm blue."

Anger snorted. "Yeah, great start."

"Hey, Anger, be nice!" Joy chided.

"That actually helps," Riley commented. "Then I know what color to pick up!"

Sadness actually managed a smile. "Okay, I'm a little short, I have a wool sweater that's kind of white-gray-blue-ish..."

"Wow," Disgust deadpanned. "Specific."

"Well I'm not sure what color to call it," Sadness admitted.

"That works," Riley assured her.

"And I have dark blue hair that comes to about the bottom of my face, and I wear dark round glasses, and—"

"You're shaped like a teardrop."

Sadness looked at Disgust. "No I'm not."

"Uh, yeah, you kind of are."

Riley adjusted the lines of her drawing a bit, trying to give her depiction of Sadness a more teardrop-like shape before coloring it in.

Sadness paused. "That... actually does look like me."

"Told ya, teardrop shape," Disgust said with a smug grin.

"Thanks Disgust," Riley smiled. "How about you go next since you're a shape expert?"

"Gladly!" Disgust grinned. "Okay, let's see... Well, I have light green skin and dark green hair, a dark green dress that shimmers, has a little sparkle, I wear a purple-pink scarf—"

"And you're shaped like broccoli," Anger finished.

Disgust's eyes grew wide and she scrunched up her face, revolted. "Are you _crazy_?! I am not shaped like broccoli!"

"Sure you are," Anger said, having a field day with this. "You're kind of skinny, your hair does that curvy little flip thing like broccoli has—"

"Uh uh, totally wrong." Disgust crossed her arms, waving her hand. "Riley, show'em."

But the green emotion's face fell as Riley finished her drawing. It did bear a pretty similar likeness to Disgust... and to broccoli. Disgust's eyes widened in horror.

"What do you know, Disgust!" Joy was trying not to burst out in laughter. "You do look like broccoli!"

"No, no, that can't be, it doesn't..." Disgust's face paled as her eyes narrowed at the depiction that was a blend of what she loved (herself) and what she hated (broccoli). "I look like _broccoli_?! But... how the... _Why was I cursed to look like my least favorite thing in the universe?!_ "

Riley didn't even try to hold back her laughter that Joy shared.

"Okay," Fear said. "Who next?"

"You go," Anger said. "I think Joy's having a bit of a laughing fit here. Besides," he grinned devilishly at Disgust, "I'm stil enjoying the fact that Disgust realized she's shaped like _broccoli_!"

Disgust flinched as he said the word. "That's it, I am _so_ redoing my hair!"

Fear drummed his fingers together. "Okay, so, um, I'm light purple, I'm tall—"

"And skinny like a nerve," Anger added.

"I'm not like a..." Fear looked down at himself and sighed. "Okay, yeah, kind of like a nerve." He looked anxiously at Riley's drawing. "I have one hair on top of my head, I wear a dark pink bowtie, blue jeans, a black and white jagged pattern shirt—"

"Houndstooth," Disgust corrected.

"Yeah, that. I have a long nose, my eyes are long and near the top of my head—' His eyes bugged out. "Riley, not _that_ near the top!"

"Oops," Riley giggled sheepishly, erasing Fear's eyes from being literally on top of his head, getting a laugh from the other emotions.

"Okay, good, that's good! Joy, you go!"

Joy clapped her hands. "Okay, I kind of look like a star, I have kind of gold skin and blue hair a bit lighter than Sadness. I have a bit of a blue glow around me, and I wear an apple green dress with blue flowers on it, but in the light the dress sometimes looks chartreuse."

"That dress sounds so pretty!" Riley said, getting an apple-green pencil and coloring in the dress before doing her own flower design speckled around on it.

"Wonderful, Riley!" Joy then pointed to the last of the group. "Anger, you're last!"

"Okay." Anger cleared his throat. "So, I'm dark red, I wear a suit and tie, and—"

"You're short and you look like a brick," Disgust quipped.

"Yes, I'm short and— _HEY_!"

"Oh, so you're the littlest person in my brain," Riley snickered.

"We're not in your brain, we're in your _mind_ ," Anger corrected. He then paused as he noticed how Riley was drawing, his face becoming a scowl. "Hey, I'm not _that_ short!"

"Aw come on, Anger!" Disgust said with a smirk, at least feeling this was some payback for the whole "shaped like broccoli" thing. "Shortest for last!"

"The rest of you guys didn't go in height order! And I'm NOT THAT SHORT!" The top of his head flared up at the last few words.

"Anger," Joy said, smiling broadly, "let her draw how she wants. Looking good, Riley!"

"Thanks," Riley responded, humming to herself a bit as she drew and finding amusement at Anger being ticked off.. Finishing drawing Anger's outline and features, suit and tie included, she started to color him in.

Joy let out an excited little squee as she pressed a few buttons on the console. "Oh, Riley, draw the little flames coming out of his head!"

"Hey, that only happens when I get mad!"

"Which is about half the time," Disgust said with a nonchalant tone that frustrated Anger even more as Joy took charge of the console again.

"Is that why it sounded like a blowtorch went off in my head when Pizza Planet was closed for repairs?" Riley asked.

"Yup, that was firebrick here," Disgust said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, how come you can give her directions but I can't?" Anger snapped.

"Because _Joy's_ nice about it," Riley answered, laughing slightly.

The red emotion growled, not exactly too happy about their host's response.

"Oh let her be creative," Joy chided at seeing Anger's grumpy expression, pressing a few more buttons on the console and allowing Riley's mood to brighten.

Riley couldn't help but grin. The more she interacted with them, the less she wanted the intercom to be fixed. These little emotions were nice to talk to.

The five emotions watched in silence for a few moments, impressed with Riley's depiction of them. Even Sadness was feeling a little happier at seeing how her drawn-self actually had a small smile on her face. Riley's happiness—thanks to Joy—was proving to be contagious.

"So guys," Riley asked, the questioning inflection in her voice causing the five to pay attention. "If you're not in my brain, where exactly are you?"

"We're in your mind," Sadness replied.

Riley placed her colored pencil down and crossed her arms. The emotions couldn't see it, but the look on her face was skeptical and slightly amused. "Well, yeah, but where _is_ that?"

Silence was present in Headquarters. The emotions looked at one another.

"Well…"

"Um…"

"Huh…"

Perplexed expressions manifested on the emotions' faces. How could they explain where they were, anyway? They were somewhere in her head, sure, but how could they express it to her? Come to think of it, they never had really given much thought into _where_ exactly they were, aside from the Mind World being in her head and not being surrounded by squishy brain matter.

How were they supposed to describe something like that?

Joy's face suddenly lit up as an idea came to her as if through an idea bulb. It may not be the most profound thing, but to the best of her knowledge she figured it might do for an analogy. "Remember how Mr. Connor in science class was discussing the way the Earth is with the mantle and inner core and stuff?"

In that moment, a memory orb from Long Term Memory shot up to Headquarters, projecting it onto the screen of Riley's vision.

"There we go, appropriate memory, right on time!"

"Yeah-wait a minute..." Riley paused at Joy's wording. "You got another memory?"

"Yup!" Joy exclaimed. "That's how Long Term Memory works here."

"I don't think this will all get me any points in science class," Riley added with a slightly amused chuckle, a sentiment that was shared by her emotions. "So, um, yeah, I... remember that, I guess..." Riley began to wonder exactly how much of her mind was her own and how much was directed, but she decided to dispel that thought for a while. Instead, she started coloring in her drawing of Anger again. "So, um, what about it?"

"About i—oh, right, the brain thing!" Joy had nearly gotten so wrapped up in expressing how the memories worked that she nearly forgot the initial question. "Well, um, think of it like we're kind of like an energy manifestation of the mantle, and the brain is the inner core. So we can be affected by brain freeze and such."

"Wouldn't that be mind freeze?" Riley joked. Smiling a little at hearing several bouts of good-natured laughter in her head, she continued. "So basically you're like an energy version of the world in my head?"

"More or less!" Joy exclaimed.

"If you got brain surgery though we probably wouldn't notice much," Disgust added. "At least, hopefully not."

"Are you kidding?" Fear protested, running toward the console and staring Joy down. "To go with your analogy, Joy, it would be like having the inner core of the Earth crack and cause earthquakes all over the place! Headquarters would probably shut down and risk changing entirely! Or one of us could be lost and never come back! Or like," he pointed at Disgust, who looked at him quizzically, "you could lose your fashion sense!"

Disgust snorted and gave Fear a challenging glance. "I would _dare_ a brain surgeon to try to change that about me."

"If they did that they'd freak out first at seeing you!" Fear exclaimed, pressing buttons on the console to try to dispel the thought from Riley's mind of ever having brain surgery.

"You know what I mean, Fear!" Disgust crossed her arms. "We're in an _alternate dimension_ , they _can't_ see us!"

Riley cringed, feeling a twinge of unease from Fear's influence. She didn't want anything happening to change her personality or lose these entertaining little voices, even if their constant chatter was annoying. They were friendly now, brain surgery might change them and make things worse. "Well um, in that case, I'm never getting brain surgery."

Rather than easing his concerns as Riley hoped her words would, that only sent Fear into another panicked ramble as he practically started pushing every button on the console as another memory orb, this one purple, slid into place on the shelves. "No, _no_ , dont say that! What if you end up needing one later?!"

"But I wouldn't want _you_ getting hurt," Riley admitted.

"Don't worry about us," Fear insisted, trying to be brave as he relaxed his control of the console even though he was worried about them at the thought as well. "You're our top priority, Riley! And your safety is my top priority!"

Riley couldn't help but feel flattered at how much they cared for her, but she still had so many questions. "Okay, so about my memories... what are they like? And what's your living area like?"

"Well," Joy began, "we live in this little place above everything else called Headquarters..."

The minutes went by, and each of the emotions got a turn in explaining various aspects of the Mind World to their host. Headquarters, core memories, personality islands, Riley's mind spun with everything she was being told.

And she wanted to see it.

She remembered how "show don't tell" was an important thing in her English class. And that was what she wanted. She wanted so much more than to hear about this little world, with each part of it described to her. She wanted to actually _be_ there, to see what it was like, to hold one of those memories of hers in her hands, to ride the Train of Thought.

To meet the little voices inside her head...

"That all sounds amazing," Riley muttered almost wistfully. She looked at the picture, sketchy as it was, literally only able to guess as to what this fantastic-sounding world inside her head was like. "I wish I could see it somehow..."

"That would be pretty cool," Disgust admitted, "but you can't exactly go inside your own head, right?"

"At least we don't think you can," Sadness said thoughtfully. She placed a hand on her chin, leaning her elbow against the console and glancing up at the screen. "I guess it's all just hopes and dreams..."

"Hopes and dreams..." After a moment of thought, Joy beamed as if she had had a switch pulled in her head that caused her to smile as wide as she could in a way that didn't come off as creepy. "Hopes and _dreams_! That's _it_!" She hurried over to her blue emotion friend and gave her an excited hug, prompting Sadness to gasp in surprise. "Sadness, you're a _genius_!"

"I am?"

"Yeah!"

Anger couldn't help but look skeptical. "What's the genius idea?"

Riley didn't say anything, but she couldn't help but feel extraordinarily curious. If Joy was actually suggesting there was a way for Riley herself to basically go inside out...

Joy clapped her hands. "Riley, Dream Productions films your dreams with a reality distortion filter on the camera so you don't notice the sets and all that. But _what if_ ," she paused for dramatic effect, "we brought that camera around with the reality filter _off_?"

The other emotions stared.

Riley blinked, the full weight of the idea settling in her mind. "You don't mean—"

"It's simple!" Joy exclaimed. "we'll give you your own personal mind tour!" The cheerful emotion found herself bouncing around as if it were the first day of school all over again, pressing buttons on the console like crazy at the thought. "We'll show you Dream Productions, Imagination Land, Headquarters, _everything_!"

"Is that possible?" Riley asked, feeling excited at the idea.

"It might not work though," Sadness pointed out, giving a bit of input of her own. "We've never tried."

A memory blend of happiness and sadness rolled its way into Headquarters, Riley feeling a bit despondent. She really wanted to know what this world inside her head was like...

"And the fact that we've never tried is the reason why it's a good time to try!" Joy pointed out gleefully. Her expression lit up even more. "Wait, maybe instead of just bringing the camera around with the reality filter off, maybe we could do even more than that! We could _bring_ you here!"

Riley blinked. "How?"

"Yeah, Joy," Anger echoed, "how?"

"Lucid dreaming! I don't think Riley's ever lucid dreamed before!"

"You mean that kind of dream where you're aware that your dreaming?"

"Yup, and you can interact with it!"

The possibility thrilled Riley and Joy. The thought of Riley getting to see this internal world was fantastic enough. But to be there with them, inside out?

It seemed crazy. But just crazy enough to be in the realm of possible.

"Riley," Joy said, "stay awake for about 20 more minutes, okay? You think you can do without us til then?"

"I think so, why?"

"Because we're all gonna ride the Train of Thought to Dream Productions," Joy grinned. "Because if this works..."

Joy glowed with the light of the sun.

"You just might get to see your mind from the inside out!"

* * *

 **A/N: Dun dun dun, and the possibility opens! I got the idea after having learned that the first idea of the film was for Riley to go into her own mind anyway. So I figured, "Hey, maybe in lucid dreaming in canon. it could work!" So, stay tuned for the next chapter, hope you enjoyed, and review! :)**


	5. Lucid Dreaming

**A/N: Hello again, fellow Insiders! Happy to see this story is getting so much praise, it's kind of mind-blowing, haha. ;). Anyway, here Riley's finally going to attempt to access the Mind World!**

 **By the way, to clarify a bit of confusion: the story takes place after the film, though I wrote the first couple chapters before I knew about the expanded console and Riley being 12 at the end, and in the last chapter I had forgotten a bit about that. So I went back and fixed all that and will try to be more consistent in the future. :)**

 **And you may notice that I've changed all mentions of the name "Anderson" to "Andersen"—that's because, if the novelizatiin and Essential Guide are any indication, as well as Mrs. Andersen's credit card and Riley's dream posters, the entire fandom has been calling them by the wrong last name the whole time. *facepalm*. I think it's because "Anderson" is a common last name while "Andersen" is not. Whoops.^^;**

 **Also, I got the Art of Inside Out book (which is awesome), and there are quite a few interesting concepts in there that were going to be used in the movie but never were. So, you'll be seeing some of those what-could-have-beens making an appearance throughout the fic—some in a small way, some in a big way, because I've got plans for this story! On we go!**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I owned Inside Out, but I don't.**

* * *

As excited as Joy felt and looked about this opportunity, Fear only seemed to be increasingly nervous. Talking to Riley one-on-one was dangerous enough—it could have as-yet-unknown consequences for her health, physical and mental.

But actually _bringing_ her here? Able to interact with them? Assuming it was even _possible_ to begin with? Who knew what disaster that would bring?

And if all of them went through in abandoning the console...

" _All_ of us?" Fear asked, his voice a near-squeak. "But we don't know what that'll do to her! Or us!" He drummed his fingers together, looking anxiously back toward the console and the screen that showed Riley's sight. "I mean, she might turn apathetic again, right?"

"Again?" Riley's voice said, causing Fear to jump slightly due to the nerve-like emotion having forgotten she could hear them. "What do you mean 'again'?"

"Uh, long story," Joy said. "We'll explain later.". Mustering a determined grin on her face, she waved her arm as if she were the leader of a band. "Alright Team Happy, let's head down there!"

But her trek was halted by Riley suddenly speaking up, her voice crackling through the intercom from how quickly she had spoken.

"Wait, Joy, won't I need you to feel, you know, _joy_ about going there?" Riley's tone was quizzical, as was her expression unseen to the emotions. She was just as perplexed as her emotions about how the lucid dreaming would work—assuming it worked at all. Not to mention still coming to terms with the fact that her emotions were not just abstract concepts but instead were living entities that coexisted with her.

Joy frowned in thought. This just got more complicated. "I don't know... I mean, you'll be here, but we'll be here too... you'll be on the same plane as us..."

Sadness's eyes widened a bit, and she hurried as fast as her legs could carrier over to the alcove she had used to stay at. "Hold on, there might be something about that in the mind manuals."

"There's _mind manuals_?" Riley asked, looking surprised. She tilted her head up slightly to stare at her ceiling. This whole thing was getting more and more confusing with every word she heard from her mental companions.

"Yeah," Joy admitted. "Sadness is the one who's mostly read them."

"I didn't have anything to do for a while," Sadness called over from the alcove, able to be heard shifting through books. "So I just sat around and read them." She thumbed through the manuals, looking for anything that might give an answer as to the possibility of the host interacting with the inside world. It was a long-shot, but if there were any answers, the mind manuals would be likely to have them.

Riley couldn't help but feel curious about what those mind manuals contained. Assuming this whole lucid dreaming idea worked, reading them was something she definitely wanted to do. What kind of manuals could they be to tell all about that world within her mind? "I wonder..."

Fear picked up on her thought, his own mind instantly launching into the possible negative ramifications such actions could have on her psyche and well-being. "Um, Riley, I'm not exactly sure _you_ reading the manuals would be—"

He was suddenly interrupted by Sadness calling from the alcove, skimming through the pages and glancing at a small map in that section. "I think I found something."

Fear sighed, making a mental note for himself to make sure their host didn't try to read the manuals the moment she got to Headquarters as he turned to Sadness, hoping that the thought was put out of Riley's conscious thought processes. What he didn't know, however, was that Riley was still turning over that possibility in her head. Not strong enough for an idea bulb to be cultivated from the Idea Fields and brought to Headquarters, but just a pondering...

The teardrop-shaped emotion came hurrying back to her companions, a manual in her hand that bore the title _Interaction With the Outside_. Flipping through the pages after scanning the Table of Contents, Sadness finally stumbled across a section titled **Direct** **Host-to-Mind Interaction**. She held it up for the others to see. "It's smaller than the others so I almost missed it."

"Well, what do ya know..." Fear said in a slightly awed tone as he peered at the manual, barely able to believe such a section existed. Whatever force caused the mind manuals to pop into existence, it had foreseen the possibility that the mind world might find a way to connect with the human world.

They couldn't help but wonder if perhaps other humans had similar experiences...

"Does that mean this kind of thing has happened before, with other people?" Anger asked.

Disgust shrugged. "Probably other people with lucid dreaming plans out there."

"Or intercom malfunctions," Sadness added on.

"Or schizophrenia!" Fear gulped. Just saying the word, and thinking of all the bad consequences, gave his nerves the shivers and sent the particles he was made of shaking.

With Sadness handing the manual over to Joy, the golden-hued emotion looked over what the manual said, her eyes widening as she read aloud.

Outside, Riley hung on to every word.

 _There may be occasions where the host is able to initiate a process known as **lucid dreaming**. Ordinarily on those rare occasions when lucid dreaming occurs, the dreamer will be able to interact in the dream themselves with the camera following them around the set of Dream Productions, though the reality distortion filter will remain in effect. _

_If, however, the distortion filter is turned off in the host's presence, or if lucid dreaming is purposefully initiated without it, the link will be broken and the host will be able to venture out from Dream Productions and explore the rest of the Mind World as a physical being. Due to being on the same energy plane, the host is separate from their corporeal processes, and thus no longer needs the Headquarters Console or recall tubes to feel and remember just as a Mind World resident is capable of._

Joy's expression was as bright as a lightbulb. "See?" She closed the book and beamed at all of them. "Riley won't need us here!"

Fear was wide-eyed as the manual's words were taken from view. "You didn't finish reading!" he protested. "What if there was something more about it?"

"Okay, okay, calm down, worrywort," Joy chided, opening the manual once more and finding the section she had previously been at, reading more down the page. The grin on Joy's face fell a bit as she continued reading.

"What is it?" Anger asked, not exactly fond of seeing that something might be wrong here.

Joy took a breath and went on.

 _This can, however, be considered dangerous, as the host could have parts of his or her mind be affected by accidental or deliberate **consciousness tampering***. In addition the dreamer being lucid to the point of interacting with the Mind World could cause them to become disillusioned between the outside world and the Mind World._

It was as if an alarm had gone off in Fear's head at that paragraph. "That's it, I volunteer to go down to Dream Productions to keep a careful eye on Riley."

"Oh, um, thanks Fear," Riley said, though she couldn't deny that her curiosity was still piqued. Somehow, sometime, she was _going_ to try to read those manuals. Just a peek.

She had to admit this was beginning to seem a bit more unnerving though.

"You're wel—wait, is there any fine print?" Fear suddenly gripped onto Joy, leaning over her shoulder to scan the manual's pages as if his large eyes would give him a better view. "Read the fine print Joy, you always, ALWAYS gotta read the fine print!"

"That dot next to 'consciousness tampering' is either a smudge or an asterisk," Disgust pointed out as she looked over as well, "so likely there's something about that."

Joy squinted, her eyes sweeping over the text to see if there was any impossibly tiny print that she had missed that for whatever reason was often the most important stuff. "Yup," she announced, finding the indicative asterisk, "the 'fine print' is a note about what that consciousness tampering stuff is."

"Well?" Fear asked nervously.

Joy brought the book a little closer to her face to see the small print of the footnote better.

 _*Consciousness tampering involves a host who has found their way into the Mind World trying to manipulate the environment around them, whether to explore what they're capable of imagining or attempting to change aspects of themselves they don't like. If left unchecked despite potential benefits, such going-ons could lead to temporary or permanent damage to the Mind World and, by extension, the psyche of the host._

Fear looked even more on edge by that point. If Riley even touched one little thing wrong, she could destroy herself!

Despite her eyes widening at the newfound, potentially permanent risk should she get into trouble, Riley found her curiosity deepening, especially since Fear wasn't at the console right then. Creating things from imagination? Changing aspects of one's personality? She could _do_ that? With her focus most of the day having been trying to deal with the five little voices in her head, she hadn't really dwelled on the fact that it was, indeed, _her_ mind.

If she could really travel there, it would be like her playground. Who knew what could be done there? And her five emotions would be there to guide her and make sure she didn't run into any irreversible trouble. She trusted them.

In spite of Riley acknowledging the consequences, the trust that she placed in her emotions and her curiosity outweighed that, thus it was as if Riley and Fear were on opposite ends of a scale in terms of eagerness of the situation.

Fear's irises flickered back and forth from the console to the manual as he reached over and grabbed it, hurrying to the alcove of mind manuals and putting it back. "Maybe we should just forget this whole thing, you know, just keep describing—"

"No, Fear."

The five emotions turned to face the intercom, the emotion addressed feeling even more shivery. Somehow having Riley directly tell him "no" was something he found deeply unsettling, though he didn't feel he could entirely place why.

"Huh?"

"I want to see what it's like in there," Riley pleaded. "I want to know what my mind is really like."

"But—But Riley!" he babbled. "You heard what the book said! You could be damaged for life if you aren't careful!"

Riley was beginning to be a bit doubtful as well, but her curiosity eclipsed her concern. She knew the emotions would be looking out for her. "I'll be careful. You've kept me safe for the past 12 years of my life, with you guys around there I should be fine."

Fear fell silent. Riley spoke with such conviction that he knew that she wasn't going to back down on this. And he couldn't blame her. If _he_ found out he had little people in his head, and he could communicate with them, and he could travel there...

But he shook the thought out of his head. The present situation was already freaking him out enough as it was.

Joy, of course, was the one to break the ensuing silence. "You heard our girl!" she announced, bounding over to the large console and relaxing by it. "Okay, everyone going down to Dream Productions, go to the Train of Thought's docking area. I'll stay here so that Riley isn't emotionless when she wakes up since you guys will be down in Dream Productions."

"But, don't you want to meet Riley?"

Joy looked at the others for a moment before sighing, though a small smile was present on her face. "I do. More than anything. But we're not entirely sure how this lucid dreaming thing is gonna work, and there's chance that the view screen could activate here anyway, or when Riley wakes up in the middle of the night...". She looked at the others. "At least have her be able to wake up the next morning being able to feel something.

"I'll stay too," Anger offered. "Just in case the Friendly Argument section needs a bit of use in the early morning." He chuckled.

"Alright then," Disgust said, waving the other two along with her. "Sadness, Fear, you guys go on the Train of Thought and I'm coming along to make sure you two have your heads on straight. See you soon Riley." She then lowered her voice and said quieter, "assuming this works, of course."

"See you soon!" Riley called back, though not too loud so her parents didn't hear. As she said the words, Riley couldn't help but feel excited. If this worked, she was actually going to get to see her emotions, and all the rest of the Mind World. She just hoped that she wouldn't be rudely woken up in the middle of it by her parents if she slept in late.

Upon recognizing that additional feeling, her gaze turned up to her head again. She smiled a little. "Anger, are you at the console with Joy right now?"

"Yup, just got here," Anger said. "Why?"

"Because I was hoping I wouldn't be rudely woken up in the morning and I wondered if you were responsible for that feeling."

A tiny smile manifested on Anger's face. "You pick up on things quick, kid."

"Haha, thanks." Riley then picked her koala pajamas for the night and went over to the bathroom to change. She locked the door and stopped for a moment, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

She quickly moved to the other side of the bathroom, away from a view of the mirror. "Um, guys?"

"Yeah, Riley?" Joy replied.

"Could you, um, not look?". The 12-year-old winced. "Please?"

"Oh, heheh, sure Riley.". Joy looked at Anger, making a quick gesture with her head for the two of them to stand by and not look at the screen, while the yellow emotion was planning to get Riley into the state between wakefulness and REM sleep that would allow for this lucid dreaming to be possible. "Come on, let's give Riley some privacy, okay?"

"It's not like we did before," Anger pointed out.

Riley's face looked a lot more pink as she heard that, shutting her eyes.

Joy, who had been preparing to send the short term memories to Long Term, frowned a bit at Anger.

The brick-shaped emotion shrugged as he noticed the stare. "What? It's true."

* * *

As the Train of Thought headed over to Dream Productions, the three emotions on board regarded one another silently, filled with varying degrees of anticipation. They couldn't believe they were actually going to attempt to do this.

Or rather, that Riley was going to attempt it.

Disgust looked down over the chasm of the Memory Dump, shaking her head slightly. Finally, she spoke, breaking the silence. "Broccoli?"

The other emotions looked at her in confusion.

She turned to face them, looking bewildered. "Me? Looking like _broccoli_? Really?!"

"We can't help what we look like," Fear pointed out.

"Easy for you to say, stick of nerves."

Fear sighed, looking more anxious as he saw the train approaching Dream Productions. The thought of what they were doing was crazy, and possibly—almost certainly—dangerous. "Are we really gonna do this, guys?"

"Riley wants us to," Sadness pointed out. "It's not a time for her to feel sad."

Disgust and Fear looked at her, and knew their teardrop-shaped companion was right. Riley wanted this, and they were going to grant her request. Even if Fear still felt like he was going to jump out of his skin at the possibilities of what could go wrong.

As if there wasn't enough to worry about when Riley was awake.

After a few more minutes, the train finally pulled to a stop in front of the studio.

"Last stop for the day!" the conductor called from the front, exiting the train himself. "Everyone off!"

A few moments after the three emotions departed from the train, the sky above them darkened and became dotted with stars, indicating Riley had fallen asleep. Now with the Train of Thought not running, it was their job to stay there until morning.

The three entered the buildings of Dream Productions, dazzled by all the lights that illuminated each of the Stage buildings. But while they expected to see a lot of worker and visitors in the central area, it was eerily quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Disgust wondered aloud.

"Don't know," Fear said, the area being too quiet for his liking. He kept having the feeling something was going to jump out at him. Maybe even Riley.

"Well if I recall correctly from what the manual said," Sadness spoke up, "Riley should appear around—"

Suddenly, there was a crash. Then some shouting, then more talking in response and moving around. All of them came from the building marked Stage A.

"... there?" Disgust finally asked.

Sadness nodded.

"Well, at least it was easy to find." Beckoning the others with a hand, Disgust led them to find the door of Stage A and opened it.

What they were greeted with was complete chaos.

The mind workers were running around all over the place, some taking up sets and putting them down, some rapidly changing to have costumes or not, and two getting into a shouting match about whether or not to use the reality distortion filter anyway.

"Hey!"

The three emotions turned, seeing a black haired purple-skinned worker with a red hat, who seemed to be one of the directors as he wheeled one of the cameras over. "We heard you were trying to initiate lucid dreaming in a way that would allow Riley to come here! You can't do that!"

"And _why_ not?" Disgust challenged, folding her arms.

"Because, we're not sure how 'dreaming' like that could effect our equipment, or our world in general, or—"

 _Man, this guy's worse than Fear!_ Disgust thought. She glowered, trying to appear as professional as possible. "Look, Mister, speaking as Riley's managers—"

Fear looked at her skeptically. _Managers?_

"—we know that she wants this. So just put that camera away, turn off the distortion filter, and let us and Riley handle this."

Sadness stepped forward a bit. "You want to actually meet Riley, right?"

"I do!" one employee called out.

"It could be too dangerous!" another protested.

"Just this one time," chided a third.

"Yeah, what's the harm?"

The director seemed on the verge of protesting, but saw he was outnumbered. With a frustrated grunt, he shoved the camera to the side and turned it off, then held up a megaphone. "Alright, alright, everyone clear off! We're gonna see if this crazy 'lucid dreaming' idea works and doesn't blow us all to bits."

Obeying the director, the other workers moved out of the way of the main stage, stepping back and falling quiet. The emotions were Riley's managers, it was only right she saw them first.

Disgust noticed Sadness staring in front of them as if in anticipation. "So that's where Riley's supposed to show up?"

Sadness nodded. "If this works, yeah. Probably."

The uncertainty on Sadness's face and tone automatically set Fear on edge. "What do you meant 'probably'?"

"Well, I..." Sadness looked down, "I hope I got the spot right—"

" ** _Now_** you tell us?!" Fear's mind overflowed with negative outcomes again. Riley could end up somewhere in the middle of the Mind World and be completely lost all night, or get herself hurt, and who knew what would happen if she got hurt here? Would she wake up? Go into REM sleep? Become comatose? _Die_?!

He was on the verge of fainting before Disgust helped prop him up. "Woah, easy there, don't go fainting on me yet."

There was a silence between them as they waited.

Nothing happened.

Disgust noticed that the staff at Dream Productions were staring more intently, and she rolled her eyes. "Lucid dreaming can be difficult to pull off. Don't get your hopes up."

"My hopes are usually down," Sadness admitted.

" _My_ hopes are just sideways and can't decide which way to go," Fear said, his mind already on Worst Case Scenario #37 (get amnesia from being hit on the head with a memory orb) if Riley ended up in the wrong place.

Disgust sighed. Sadness was hoping for this, Fear was more anxious than anything, so it seemed it was up to her to be the level-headed one. "Dream or not, no matter what the mind manuals said, we're still not entirely sure this is gonna—"

She was interrupted as suddenly they had to shield their eyes from a bright light that appeared in a haze before them, shining brighter than a spotlight from one of the studios.

There were gasps from the studio crew as everyone stepped back, some of them frozen to the spot. They hadn't been expecting something like this to happen, and none of them were entirely sure what to expect.

The light then faded to nearly a pinprick. Then it brightened again. Fading and brightening in flux, just as the intercom had when the connection to communicate with Riley was first established.

"What's going on?" Fear asked nervously.

"Lucid dreaming needs to have the perfect state between REM sleep and being awake," Sadness pointed out, frowning. "It might not work."

The light then increased in brightness and scope once more. With the beams of light reflecting off the equipment in Dream Productions, everyone stared intently as the light began to look less fuzzy and more solid—well, solid in the sense that they were—and formed the shape of a figure. One the trio of emotions recognized.

Disgust's eyes widened. "It's working…"

The three emotions' mouths dropped open, dimly aware that some of the staff were murmuring as well. It was one thing to see through Riley's eyes as they did every day. It was another thing to actually talk to her and have her respond.

And it was a third thing altogether to have their pajama-wearing host appearing in front of them, letting out a cry of surprise as her bare feet—and nearly the rest of her as her consciousness adjusted from being horizontal to vertical—met the cold ground of the studio.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, ignoring the manual advising aside, the lucid dreaming thing worked, and Riley's inside her own mind! In the next chapter, you can expect to have Riley interact with her emotions and see the Mind World for the first time! Hope you enjoyed and remember to review!**


	6. Welcome to the Mind World!

**A/N: Back again! Would have gotten this up a lot sooner, but I went on vacation and didn't get to finish it in time. ^^; Anyway, Riley's finally entered the Mind World, and now she'll meet her emotions for the first time—and some other characters from the movie make a return! Also, mega thanks to everyone who's reviewed, followed, and faved this! On we go!**

 **Disclaimer: I own two adorable Joy figurines and a Sadness one from Hot Topic, plushies, and books. But I don't own Inside Out.**

* * *

The transference into the Mind World had felt less like less a hazy dream and much more like sudden teleportation, her consciousness abruptly having found itself switching from laying down to standing. She just barely managed to slam her hands against the floor before the rest of her tumbled down with them, saving her head from potentially being damaged.

'Head' on both accounts, considering where she was.

It was a bit disorienting, to say the least, seeing as her first few seconds here nearly led to injury (much to Fear's worry amidst his shock). And seeing as she was lucid she'd likely be able to _feel_ it too.

"Riley!"

Blinking her eyes rapidly a few times, Riley's vision came more into focus as she stared in front of her, recognizing the three beings before her from the pictures she had drawn. A surreal feeling overtook her as she felt the almost disorienting sensation of having been transported inside one of her own drawings of her mental companions.

Her emotions. She was actually staring at her _emotions_... Well, three of them.

Fear had been the one who had spoken, and in a flash he was over next to her and helping her up. But he stumbled back a bit as he realized that Riley was a good few inches taller than him. About half a foot taller, maybe more, in comparison to his roughly 4'0 height, being slightly shorter than Joy.

Now it was _Fear's_ turn to feel a sort of dizzying sensation at this unexpected height difference. "Woah, you're tall here!"

Up close, Riley could see the little energy particles that made up his form, and as she glanced at her own hands she was stunned to realize that she, too, had a similar appearance. And luckily her pajamas still seemed to be intact.

Getting over the double-shock of Riley being here and her being pretty tall, Fear looked her over like he was an eccentric doctor who had drank twelve cups of coffee, looking at her face and lifting her arms a bit as much as he could to make sure they weren't damaged or even floppy-looking from taking on their energy-based form. "Okay, do you feel any loss of vision, loss of awareness, lack of feeling in your limbs, aches, disintegration, amnesia—"

"F-Fear," Riley said, laughing a little yet still feeling a bit disoriented and awed at the fact that the attempt at lucid dreaming had actually succeeded. "I feel fine."

"Are you sure?" Fear babbled. "I mean, you're in your mind, you haven't done this lucid dreaming thing before!" He quickly held up three fingers, looking up at her. "Quick, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two."

"Now?"

Riley was on the fence between laughing and giving him that "eyes half-closed in disapproval" look. "Four."

"N—"

"Fear!" Disgust exclaimed, dragging the purple emotion away from their host. "She's fine."

Finally accepting that Riley didn't seem to look damaged in any way despite a minor disorientation, Fear forced himself to calm down slightly. But the fact that Riley was actually here meant she'd need protection from whatever hazards she could run into here—exactly why he had volunteered to come in the first place. And being a good deal taller, she could hit her head on something!

With all of them back a bit, Riley stared at the trio. The three emotions did bare quite a similar likeness to what she had drawn. However, there were a few things that her companions hadn't mentioned that we're now brought to her attention. Like the fact that Disgust was wearing a belt with her initial. And that Fear's eyebrows were pretty much floating above his head.

But she'd have time to ask about those small things later. Right now she was simply amazed that she was actually staring at her emotions, not just as vague abstractions, but little beings that had coexisted with her throughout her life.

Sadness managed to raise her hand a little in a slight wave. "Hi, Riley."

Disgust smiled a little. "Welcome to the Mind World."

Riley was still a little stunned, her consciousness fully taking in the words, who was saying them, and the place in which she now found herself. "I'm here, I'm in my mind, I'm with..."

She trailed off, staring at them for a moment before suddenly racing over and hugging the trio, throwing her arms around them in a group hug much like Joy would do. Their particle-skin texture—and her own now, for that matter—felt a bit strange, almost fuzzy, but she didn't mind it. It was a nice feeling.

Riley began wondering if perhaps she felt such joy because Joy was still in Headquarters or if this was a happiness that existed independent of her. She assumed the latter—after all, the mind manuals had said that a host in the Mind World didn't need that sort of console thing to feel.

The trio of emotions were startled at first, but hugged back once they got over the shock that not only was Riley here on their energy-based metaphysical plane, but she was hugging them.

To think that just a few hours ago, none of them had thought this would ever be possible. And yet here Riley was, no longer just a host to their emotional natures or even a friend one would talk to over the phone. She was here, with them, in their inside world.

And while Fear's thoughts were already filled with what might go wrong, Riley's own thoughts were racing with how much of this strange new world she wanted to see.

Breaking off from the hug, Riley looked around and, suddenly noticing the various mind workers staring open-mouthed at her across the room, began recognizing one of the things that had been mentioned and described to her, based on the staging and film equipment. "Wait, are we in Dream Productions?"

"Bingo," said Disgust, finding a bit of amusement in the absolute wonder in Riley's voice.

Riley was about to respond, but suddenly she heard a sound that sounded like a half-gasp half-neigh. She, as well as the three emotions, turned their gazes to the back of the stage area.

Coming from down one of the hallways, Rainbow Unicorn had stopped in and was staring at Riley, slack jawed.

"Hey, I remember you!" Riley exclaimed, at least able to feel confident in her mindscape that this memory was her own and it hadn't been "called up" for her (though remembering that the other two emotions were in Headquarters then called that thought into question). "You were in that dream I had where the fairy helped grant a wish to see other places in pools of water in order to find where the magic jewels were hidden!"

"Oh, oh, that was me!" One of the female staff members was waving her hand, the only one who had managed to get out of the stunned "Riley is here" stupor. "That was me!"

Riley gave her a small wave. "You were cool."

The mind worker let out an excited shout commonly termed as a "fangirl squee". "Riley thought I was cool!"

A bit flustered that a simple voicing of her opinion had just seemed to make that mind worker's day—or maybe life—Riley quickly turned to Rainbow Unicorn. "Y-You were too."

Rainbow Unicorn nodded, but it was more of a stiff nod, the shocked expression still on her face. After blinking a few times, as if making sure she wasn't seeing things, the unicorn cantered off as if she remembered she had left something burning on the stove.

Riley looked at the three emotions. They shrugged, just as confused.

A moment later, Rainbow Unicorn returned, holding what looked like a pencil and paper in her hooves. The unicorn looked at her hopefully.

Riley looked from the paper to the unicorn who held it, her eyes widening in realization. "Wait, are you asking for my _autograph_?"

Rainbow Unicorn nodded vigorously.

As if that gesture had been a cue that shook everyone else out of their stunned stillness, other members' of Dream Productions' staff raced to their own rooms to presumably get some pieces of paper and pens as well. It looked almost like a sea of living traffic.

And sure enough, in a flash the workers returned, most carrying papers, though some carrying props and dream posters, as well as pens or pencils. And they wanted her to sign all of them.

"Dang," Disgust said, impressed. "You're popular."

"But there's so many people," Sadness lamented, drooping her head down a bit. "This will take forever and we won't get to show you everything."

"If this goes well, there'll be more chances," Disgust pointed out.

"Everyone step AWAY with the pens, please!" Fear demanded, raising his hands up and trying to get everyone away, or at least in an orderly line. "Form a safe line! We _don't_ want any accidental injuries to the eyes, skin, or face! Or anything!"

With a bit of grumbling, everyone formed a line.

Riley could feel heat rising to her cheeks out of embarrassment. She was baffled that she was suddenly being treated as if she was some sort of celebrity. And yet, as she thought about it, she realized it made sense, in a way. These people literally based their jobs, their entire lives, around her.

About half an hour later, the Dream Productions staff had finally begun to clear away from Stage A, and Riley had signed so many things that her right hand was practically making the movements to write ' _Riley Andersen_ ' on autopilot. Finally, there was enough clearance for them to get away from there and explore the other parts of Dream Productions and the rest of the Mind World.

"You are gonna be wowed when you see what's out there, Riley," Disgust promised. "The islands are lit up, the night sky looks _much_ better than the sky we've seen in the human world, no offense."

"None taken," Riley said, still amazed that she was here at all despite the disorienting start. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask but she held them back, figuring that in due time at least a few would be answered.

The quartet exited out of the Stage A area, but the moment they did, they were met with something different that they hadn't expected—it seemed a lot brighter outside, and the mind workers were jabbering excitedly and pointing.

Curious, they, like everyone else, looked up.

Fear's purple skin paled. "What happened?!" he cried, cringing and looking around as if the sky was literally going to fall on them.

"I think the night sky might have flicked an off switch or something," Disgust commented.

Riley's eyes were widened in surprise. The sky was not a star-specked darkness like she had expected, but rather a blue-gray color a little darker than the sweater that Sadness wore. There were no stars present whatsoever, and the dullness in color seemed to be somewhere in between the sky when she was awake and when she was asleep.

Sadness looked at Riley in astonishment. "It must be because of you."

Riley glanced down. "Me?"

The blue emotion nodded, her eyes wide behind her glasses. "Since you're lucid dreaming in here, the sky must be in some sort of transition phase."

"What if it breaks?" Fear insisted, looking at Riley and taking her hand protectively.

"It was in the mind manuals, genius," Disgust muttered. "Obviously people have done it more than once and the sky never broke. We'll be fine."

Fear really hoped Disgust would be right.

Traveling through the different stage areas, led by a few of the mind workers and a director named Paula (who quickly said not to confuse her with Paula the Forgetter), Riley got to see just how Dream Productions worked as she was led to another, more spacious stage setting, Stage C.

"Now here," said Paula, "is a set up for a dream that we did for you a couple nights ago."

Riley's mouth fell open. From the wooden floor, to the bed on the right with the quilted bedspread, the beside lamp, the hockey sticks to the side... it looked like an exact replica of her room.

"Wow..."

"It's from the dream where you were talking to your parents and were worried about your big hockey tournament."

"I remember that!" Riley exclaimed. "And talking to them in my dream helped me sort out how to talk to them about it when I woke up!"

Paula smiled at her. "That's what we do. We take in your input of events and thoughts throughout the day, make a set, add the reality distortion filter, roll camera, bingo, we've got your dream!"

"What about nightmares?"

Paula waved a hand, looking almost dismissive. "We do those too, based on what we feel like best fits the intel we've gathered."

Riley frowned. She had expected a response along the lines of "We even try to help you then," but Director Paula seemed apathetic about it. They weren't necessarily there for her well-being, just to make a dream with what they gathered.

Talk about the phrase, 'it's nothing personal, it's just business'. But Riley wasn't going to let herself be too bothered by it. In fact, an idea came to her.

"What if..." she paused, "what if _I_ wanted to direct one?"

Paula paused mid-step and looked up at Riley, as if the girl had just asked them all to star in a dream where they were all chased and eaten by mutant snakes. "What?! Direct one? B-But they're _your_ dreams!"

Riley couldn't help but feel more eager at this idea the more she thought of it. "Then I can control what I see the next time I actually dream it, you can just project the dream the next night I don't lucid dream!"

Director Paula felt as if someone had put her in a washing machine or blender and turned it on. The host, directing? It was bad enough that this lucid dreaming thing had thrown a wrench into their schedule, but the _host_ trying to direct a dream? That could be chaos!

"Ehh, we'll think about it, kid," Paula said, trying to hurry the group along a bit more and budging them toward the exit of Stage C. "We're all trying to figure out how this lucid-stuff works, so let's focus on having you see your mind and all, then we'll talk once you're comfortable."

"Okay..."

"Don't worry, you just run along and have fun," Paula said, opening the door and waving the quartet out. "We'll be here if you need us!"

The moment Riley and the three emotions left, Paula closed the door to Stage C and sighed, taking off her director hat. She could understand the kid's wishes. And the excitement of the mind workers.

As disgruntled as she felt about their host trying to do a job that she wasn't qualified for, the whole matter of Riley being here was honestly was kind of exciting. At least better than those two emotions and the pink elephant having disrupted the filming of _Where Are My Pants?_ a year back...

She just had to hope that Dream Productions wouldn't be as disrupted again when Riley came back for another lucid dream round...

* * *

The four exited out of Dream Productions, the ground underneath them shifting from the polished tile of the studio to the canyon-like ground that covered the rest of the Mind World. And as they moved farther away from the studio, more of the Mind World came into view.

Riley's eyes were met with the sight of the train that was colored in an array of blues and purples, seeing large islands that looked to be dotted around what seemed to be a large canyon. Her steps slowed, her entire being awed at the realization that here she was beholding everything that made her who she was. Humans were home to an entire dimension, an entire world that formed the basis of who they were... and Riley was actually able to experience it for herself!

A broad grin that would have rivaled Joy's spread across Riley's face, and she raced eagerly toward the train, the three emotions fighting to catch up.

"This is the Train of Thought, isn't it?" she called, sitting on the cart right behind the main control room, looking at the labels on the crates as she sat next to them. She noticed that the small boxes were labeled "Daydreams", and she dared to open one while waiting for her emotions to arrive. She squinted as the removal of a lid caused her eyes to be met with a collection of what looked like glowing DVDs of all different colors. She carefully picked up one at the top and examined it, the glittering gold surface engraved with the words _Traveling Through the Jurassic_. "Woah, so my daydreams are delivered on here?"

"Yup," Disgust replied, scrambling up beside Riley with the other two following soon after.

Sadness peeked over to see which daydream Riley help in her hand. A smile crossed the blue emotion's face. "Joy thought you'd like that one."

Riley chuckled a little, the corners of her mouth crinkling into a grin of her own. Placing the daydream back in its box and closing the lid, Riley's face lit up as if an idea bulb had suddenly been plugged in, and she stood up.

"Wait, Riley!" Fear called, his single hair standing on end. "What are you doing?"

"Checking out the front!"

"The Train of Thought doesn't run when you're asleep," Disgust pointed out.

"Well, this is _my_ mind, right?" Riley practically sprinted up to the front of the train as she opened the door, having to duck to avoid hitting her head on a ceiling that was meant for someone shorter. Shutting the door, and taking the controls in her hands as if she were playing a video game, Riley's expression changed to one of excited determination. "If this is my Train of Thought, then I can guide it, right?"

"Um, Riley?" Fear's voice was hesitant, looking as if he were seconds away from starting to leap to the front and stop her despite being also afraid something would collapse. The purple emotion's hands were gripping so hard onto the side of the cart that Riley, looking at him through the back window, wasn't sure what would break first, the bottom rim or his fingers. "I'm not sure that's exactly how this thing—"

Her eyes narrowed in curiosity, Riley pulled a lever in front and focused on moving forward. A bit too abruptly.

"— _worrrrkkkkssss_!"

The last word from Fear was drawn out into a scream as the quartet suddenly found the train spiraling upward, more like a roller coaster than a gentle train ride as it was normally piloted. The three emotions tumbled backward, nearly falling off the side as some daydream boxes crashed into the other train cars while some fell off altogether.

"AAHHH! Sorry, SORRY!" Her focus in a whirlwind, Riley quickly tried to focus her thoughts on stopping the train... and it stopped so suddenly that the three emotions nearly were sent flying over the opposite edge and into the Memory Dump far below.

Fear was partially launched into the air with only his already tight grip saving him, Sadness almost tumbled off but grabbed onto the side just in time, and Disgust barely managed to save herself from falling by grabbing onto Fear's feet just as Riley managed to focus her thoughts to keep the train on a stable path. Barely hanging on as she managed to scramble up with the others, the green emotion understandably looked freaked out. And a bit sick.

Disgust caught her breath as the train steadied out, managing to stumble their way toward the back of the main engine control room. "Okay... never... NEVER... do that again."

Fear and Sadness nodded in a dizzy agreement. The nerve-like emotion was wobbling as he scrambled to the door, the other two following behind.

Riley, suddenly finding it a bit cramped in there with the four of them, fought to steady the train a bit more, but with her taking in the view of the Personality Islands, Long Term Memory, and everything else, her Train of Thought got a bit wayward.

Despite them all now being in the most secure part of the train, Fear was trying not to have a heart attack.

"Maybe we can go to Headquarters first?" Disgust managed to suggest, still attempting not to be sick and figuring they'd at least get a break from the wayward nighttime train ride. Better to have a destination than have all this crazy doom-spinning.

Riley turned her gaze upward, finally seeing the long tube that extended to the oblong shape of Headquarters overlooking everything else in the Mind World. Her blue eyes seemed to almost appear brighter, narrowing in determination. She could do this. "Okay, up we go!"

The train lurched forward again like a rocket, this time its path tilting almost at a 90 degree angle.

"NOT **_THAT_** UP!" Fear shrieked, expecting to see his life flash before his eyes any second.

Riley cringed, looking at her emotions with a sheepish embarrassment as she tried to steady out the train. "Um, sorry!"

Fear tried not to look down and kept his grip tight on anything he could in case Riley tried to make any sort of spirals of doom again. He just hoped they'd make it back to Headquarters in one piece.

Smiling in spite of herself, Riley pulled a cord on the side to let the whistle blow, having the time of her life with this. A Train of Thought that she could move just by thinking about it? How cool was that?

Allowing a gleeful laugh to escape her, Riley set her sights on the glowing building that rose over the rest of the area. Time to see what exactly her internal Mission Control was like.

* * *

"Do you have any fives?"

"Nooope! Go fish, Anger!"

"AGH, THIS IS STUPID!"

Back in Headquarters, Joy had suggested that she and Anger do various activities to pass the time. And clearly the red emotion had not liked any of the card games she was advising, seeing as a card he was holding had just bust into flames before falling to ashes on the ground.

"Come on, Anger, we're doing this for Riley!"

"No, _they_ ," Anger gestured out toward the windows, "are doing something for Riley!" He threw his hands up in the air. " _We_ are just sitting here waiting, and for what?!"

The two emotions gave a passing glance to where the screen of Riley's sight ordinarily was. As expected, there was no input, no opening of Riley's eyes that would indicate for the emotions to get back to work. And there likely wouldn't be any activity there for another 6 hours or so unless the lucid dreaming shorted out in the middle of the night and woke Riley up or got her into normal REM sleep.

The good news: based on the sky being in that not-quite-awake state, the lucid dreaming thing was holding steady so far. The bad news: the three other emotions and Riley would likely be down there until the Train of Thought returned that morning, unless they went back by way of recall tube, though that was impossible from their point—Dream Productions and Long Term Memory were about half a day's walk away from another on foot, maybe more, and that was assuming one _didn't_ get lost in Long Term Memory when trying to find a recall tube!

"Dang it, it's well past one, I'm considering just going to sleep and having us ask them how it went in the morning!" Anger grumped and glared at his companion, abandoning the game entirely. "It's not like we can do anything here right now!"

"Aw, come on, Anger!" Joy exclaimed, trying to get him to be a bit more excited about this.

But Anger wasn't having that. "Dream Productions isn't actually gonna be showing anything tonight no matter how long we wait, and regardless, the Train of Thought isn't running! We won't be able to find out if anything _really_ happened til morning!"

"But Riley's here!" Joy pointed out, smiling as she gestured toward the gray-blue sky and started practically bouncing off the ground in anticipation. "Isn't that exciting?"

Anger facepalmed and started to walk over toward the ramp that lead to their rooms. "If you want to go and just imagine what they're doing down there all night, fine. I've stayed up long enough waiting for something to happen, so I'll be upstairs actually _sleeping_ like I—"

He paused as he heard a sound that he never expected to hear this time of night. A sound that caused both him and Joy to look over at the window that overlooked the personality islands.

It sounded oddly like a train whistle.

Anger paused, knowing that whistle but wondering if he was just imagining things. "Did you hear that whistle, or was that just me?"

"No, I heard it too! It's the Train of Thought!" Joy shouted, racing over to the windows and pressing her hands to the glass, the other emotion quickly following suit.

"It can't be," Anger insisted. "Regardless of the sky, it's night, the Train can't run unless...

He fell silent as the two of them stared out the window with widened eyes, feeling for a moment as if they were in Imagination Land. There it was, the Train of Thought moving up toward them in a way that reminded them more of a roller-coaster than its usual gentle path. At least as it headed toward them it was starting to level out and not threaten to have the tracks materialize and crash straight through Headquarters.

The two emotions stared in amazement as the train's speed slowed, able to see the four who were in the front compartment. Disgust, who looked like she was about to barf if she hadn't already. Fear who seemed like he was screaming but lost all energy to make a sound. Sadness, who looked a bit winded and was trying to help the person at the helm. And the fourth of them looked like she was having the time of her life as she drove the train. Seeing the pair of emotions left in Headquarters as the train pulled up, she waved, looking a bit stunned all the while.

"No way..." Anger murmured.

In contrast to her companion's quiet murmur of astonishment, Joy bore an expression on her face that was as if she had received the best birthday present ever.

"It's Riley!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well, finally got it up! I know we never really saw what detailed daydreams look like in the film, so I just kind of went with my own headcanon for it (we did see the daydreams of Riley's new house were chips, but those were static images). So, next chapter Riley finally will get a tour of Headquarters and get to meet the last two remaining emotions! Hope you enjoyed and remember to review! And thanks to my editor Heitomos for helping me out! :)**


	7. Riley: Recognized

**A/N: Hi everyone, I'm back! I know this chapter took a while, but seeing as it is Headquarters, I wanted to make sure I got everything right for this, especially figuring out where the door was, haha. Anyway, here Riley will be introduced to Headquarters, with a bit of a surprise along the way, so, onward!**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I owned Inside Out on some level, but I don't.**

* * *

On the train, Riley turned briefly to her emotions, the trio on board looking at least relieved that the chaotic ride was over and they had each made it back in one piece.. "Where's the entrance?"

"There's a doorway on the right," Disgust said. "Well, right from our perspective."

Riley nodded, going past the windows and pulling up to the right side of Headquarters. A few feet away from a panel that was used for unloading supplies, a square door with a circular window on the upper half could be seen.

"Careful!" Fear exclaimed, cringing and shuffling forward in case he needed to intervene. "Don't crash!"

But luckily, Riley was getting better at controlling her Train of Thought. She pulled up carefully to the side, stopping within stepping distance of the door. Grinning and feeling proud of herself that she had actually managed to control the train just by thinking about it, she pulled on a lever that hung from the ceiling. As she pulled it, the train's whistle sounded.

Inside Headquarters, Joy practically tugged Anger along with a renewed spring in her step. "They're here! She's here! Riley's here!"

"Yes, Joy, I know, I saw her." Despite his apparent annoyance, Anger had to admit that he was amazed as well. "I'm just grateful that she didn't crash the train!"

As a small platform extended from the side of Headquarters to allow the passengers off, Riley couldn't help but stare as she stood in front of the door. Kneeling down as the others got off and stood beside her, she could see a purple floor and walls, slightly dulled in their normal color due to her not being awake on the outside. And there seemed to be an oblong beige construct visible if she squinted.

Riley turned to look at her emotions—Sadness and Disgust both smiling encouragingly, and Fear looking even more nervous, as if her mere presence might cause Headquarters to collapse. "Are you guys ready?"

Sadness stepped forward and put a hand on Riley's. "Are you?"

Gratefully looking down, the human girl nodded and carefully opened the door, having to bend down slightly in order to enter Headquarters at last.

Riley's eyes widened as she stepped through the door and into the emotions' living space, the three emotions filing in after her. She found herself surrounded by purple walls, and staring at what she knew had to be the control room of Headquarters. The place where the screen usually was, the long curving console with its myriad of buttons and levers, the shelves where memories were stored...

"RILEY!"

And a blue-and-yellow streak racing up faster than Riley could blink and hugging her tightly around the waist, nearly sending them both to the floor.

Riley, nearly having been knocked over by the speed at which the excitable little being crashed into her, looked down. Joy—for if her looking similar to Riley's drawing hadn't given it away, her "nearly knocking Riley down" excitement sure did—was beaming up at the blonde-haired girl with the biggest smile on her face. "H-Hi Joy!" the blonde girl exclaimed, catching her breath for a moment before eagerly hugging her back with a wide grin on her face.

So this was Joy. The emotion who had given her so many happy memories throught her life. Riley knew that if she were still linked to whatever it was that created memory orbs, there would definitely be golden ones rolling onto the shelves right now.

For a moment, Joy just relaxed in the hug that she and Riley were sharing, until the reality of it suddenly hit Joy like a firework.

This was a time to be celebrating! Riley was here!

"It's you!" Joy shouted happily, breaking off from the hug and bouncing around excitedly, practically doing a cartwheel. "It's you, it's you, it's you!" The eager motor-mouth looked like she was so happy she wanted to race upstairs, bring down her accordion, and play it as loudly and excitedly as she could. "It's you and you're here and—"

The blue-haired light source managed to pause in her excitement, clearing her throat but unable to keep the ecstatic grin off her face. "So Riley, I'm Joy, as you know. And you've already met Sadness, Fear, and Disgust!" she added, indicating each one as she hurried them each into her little congregation.

"Yeah..." Riley said as the three in question stood next to Joy, Anger coming over as well though standing a bit apart from them.

"And _this_ ," here Joy stretched her arm out to pull her brick-like companion close to her and the others, "is Anger."

Despite his annoyance at being pulled over like that, even Anger managed a stunned smile. "Hey, um, Riley..." He tilted his head upward, realizing just how tall Riley was here.

As if he wasn't already short compared to Joy.

"Wow... you're tall. You make me feel short."

Riley shrugged, uncertain of what to say, but the happy expression on her face was a clear indicator that she didn't feel too awkward about it anymore. She was just thrilled to be _there._

"So, we're your emotions, and this is home base!" Joy exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air, "Welcome to Headquarters, Riley!" She bounced over and took Riley's hand eagerly leading her along as the others followed. "First we'll show you what's here on this floor, and then we'll show you our rooms upstairs!"

Riley's heart leapt in excitement. True, the emotions had told her about the basic structure of Headquarters itself, but now she would actually get to see it!

"First of all," Joy said, leading Riley close to the console, "this is the console that we use to, well, be your emotions." She danced over to each spot. "We all have a place on the console, and whenever we think you need to feel happy, sad, etc. etc., we just press a button..."

Joy pressed one in the center, and the console shone briefly with a golden light.

"And presto! The console glows depending on which emotion's touching it, and bingo, you feel our influence and act accordingly!"

Riley looked over the myriad of buttons, most of them not labeled, as she processed what this meant. Her smile turned into an expression of uncertainty. "So, wait, I, um..."

"You what?" Disgust asked cautiously, arching her brow at Riley's apparent concern.

"I, um..." Riley felt almost silly for asking the question on the tip of her tongue. But then again, it was a big console, and she felt she had a right to ask. "I still have free will, right?"

"Oh, pfft, of course you do!" Joy exclaimed, taking Riley's hand to try to reassure her. "We just help guide you, we don't control _everything_ you do."

"If we did," Anger admitted, "I'd type out a few choice words to say to some of those annoying people we've seen around the city."

Despite how unnerving the idea was, Riley still managed to smile again. The emotions acted as her guides but gave her freedom to choose for the most part. At least that was more comforting, rather than creepy. Feeling a bit reassured, she looked over the various console controls. "So, what do these all do?"

Sadness pointed to an intent on the left. "That's the idea plug-in where we give you ideas."

"And those ideas are right over here!" Joy called, racing over to one of the indents in the wall near the core memory holder and the intercom before returning with a light bulb. After a moment of its light shining from the console, the idea bulb was removed as she handed it to Riley to see.

Riley looked at the idea bulb, noticing that the words ' _Use Emotions to_ _Study for Test'_ were faintly inscribed on it. "So, if you plug that in tomorrow, I'll get that idea even though... technically I have it now?". Her facial expression turned perplexed.

"Yeah," Sadness said, her expression looking a bit more droopy. "I just remembered that test..."

Joy looked sheepish—probably not the best idea to pick up. "Uhhh, forget that! I mean, right now," she said quickly, getting the idea bulb from Riley and placing it in the alcove again. "We'll show you the Idea Fields where those come from sometime! Oh, maybe we'll even get there as a brainstorm is happening, then you'll really see the ideas grow!"

Riley felt fascinated by all this. Guess people were right when they said that brainstorms spawned bright ideas. They probably never thought of anything like that!

Joy practically skipped back to the console. "Oh, and a button here in the center allows us to call up a memory if we want to!" She pressed the button in question, focusing on recalling any happy memory, and a slow hum was heard as a pole-like construct extended from the top of the core memory holder that rest in the floor. Joy clapped her hands in anticipation, haven't not inputed any memory specifically but eager to see what happy memory would pop up. "Then the memory's image projects onto the screen through this neat little combo set-up I call the Mind's Eye."

As Joy spoke, Riley and the others noticed a tube pop down from the ceiling and a golden-colored memory hovering into place, projecting onto the Mind's Eye as a little bit of familiar music started.

" _TripleDent Gum—_ "

Everyone simultaneously cringed.

Anger screamed in frustration, his head catching fire. "NOT THAT ONE!"

Joy facepalmed. Of all the happy memories to get brought up it had to be that one? " _Really_?"

Riley, after a moment, started humming along, sympathizing with both of them. Just when she thought that little jingle got out of her head.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Joy quickly pressed the same button on the console to send the ear worm straight back to Long Term Memory as the pole-shaped projector lowered. "Sorry about that," she said. "The Mind Workers sometimes like to send that one up as a prank."

"Yeah," Sadness said, "that's where most of the catchy songs come from."

"So now you have someone to blame," Disgust added.

Riley laughed, pretty certain that there would be more times like that in the future—they seemed to come up at the most random of moments. It was then that another point of the console caught her eye. "What about that?"

All the emotions turned to see that she was pointing at the big red alarm marked "Puberty". They all looked at each other, then at Riley.

"Not sure," Joy admitted.

"No idea," said Fear.

"It's just sort of... there." Disgust shrugged, "It takes up space."

Riley tilted her head, looking as if she were pondering looking up what it was. After all, it was on her console, it had to be a natural response, right?

"Anyway, we'll figure out that Puberty thing later, come on, Riley!" Joy exclaimed, back to her enthusiastic self and trying to put the ear worm and the Puberty alarm out of her mind.

Riley, resisting the urge to keep humming that gum commercial jingle, followed Joy and the others. Joy pointed out Anger's time-out corner over to the far left of the console (causing Anger to grumble in indignation) and the empty shelves that held memories in a given day before finally skipping over to the circular construct in the center of the floor, pulling up a tab that caused the pillar to rise.

At first, Riley squinted from the light, the core memories brightening up the nighttime lighting of Headquarters considerably. But upon getting more used to the light, her mouth dropped open. The mix of colors of the core memories shone before her, and as she looked closer, she could see images of herself in them.

"These," Joy said with a dramatic flourish, "are your core memories that form your Personality Islands!" Letting a small chuckle escape her at the nearly entranced expression on Riley's face, she went on. "For instance, Hockey Island is powered by the memory where you scored the final goal in your first hockey game in San Francisco, but the other team still won by a point and you resolved to do better!"

"I remember that," Riley said, noticing the mixture of red and gold that made up the memory. "That moment pushed me to do better next time, and even though our team didn't win everyone cheered me on anyway."

Joy and Anger smiled at one another before the former emotion pointed out one of Riley reading a book, a mixture of purple and green. "That one powers Tragic Vampire Romance Island."

"Why in the world did we start reading that?!" Fear lamented, twitching a little at remembering how scary he thought it was. "That book was just creepy!"

"And yet it was like staring at a train of fireworks crashing into a train of moldy broccoli," Disgust muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Too horrible to watch but too interesting to look away."

At the realization that she and Disgust had said the same thing at the same time, Riley looked down and smiled at the green emotion. Disgust smiled back.

Joy pointed out the memories that powered other islands. Friendship, Boy Band, Science...

At the one for Family Island, she stopped. As Riley went over to look at it too, her expression turned almost somber. There, in a mixture of yellow and blue, was an image of herself and her parents hugging, expressing their mutual homesickness after Riley had returned from running away.

"That's..."

"Yeah..." Joy nodded in response. "Family Island..."

Everyone fell silent. Even after a year, the memory was still as fresh in their minds as if it had happened just the day before.

It was on the tip of Joy's tongue to spill to Riley about everything that had happened in those three chaotic days. The chaos, the breakdown, the sacrifice that their host had no idea about...

But she let it go for the time being. There would be time to tell Riley about all that later.

"So, anyway," Joy said, leading Riley off to the right, "these little alcoves are where we store idea bulbs, and here," she said, gesturing to the little mechanism that had started this in the first place, "is the intercom that allows us to talk to you."

Riley looked at the sparking construct, its metal mesh dented slightly and the light near it remaining on. She then turned to Anger, offering the shortest emotion a grateful smile. "Thanks, Anger. For breaking the intercom."

"Seems like my little demonstration paid off," said Anger, for once glad that him breaking something had caused something good to happen.

Joy already felt like this was the best day—or, night, rather—of her life, and every moment Riley was here was making it better. She eagerly led Riley forward, closer to the windows as she adopted a bit of a "tour guide" voice. "If you continue to look to your right, you'll see the supply delivery panel and our lockers underneath the ramp to our rooms. And to your left, you'll see the shelves of mind manuals!".

Fear stiffened.

Riley's eyes widened as she saw how many books there were. To think that somehow, all these books had knowledge of what exactly went on in this expansive Mind World. _Her_ Mind World...

How similar or different was her Mind World to that of others? What were the minds of her parents like? Her friends?

Joy glanced backward toward Sadness, still using her tour guide voice. "Our resident expert on mind manuals is Sadness, so if you have any questions feel free to ask her!"

Sadness gave Riley a shy wave in response, pleased that Joy was giving her this special attention.

Riley squinted as she glanced over at the books, picking out a few of their titles. _Core Memory Retrieval_ , _Console Construction_ , _Outside Assessment_... She cautiously stepped closer. Maybe if she could just peek at one...

"No, no, no, Riley!" Fear pleaded, following her gaze and racing to stand in front of the shelf. "You shouldn't read those, who knows what could happen!"

Riley tried to look sympathetic. She could understand Fear's nerves, but... "It's not like they're books that will change who I am if I read about them. I'll just learn what it's like."

"Can't be too careful," Fear protested, standing in front of the shelves like some kind of guard, "books give you ideas!"

"Oh for the love of Pete!" Anger muttered. "Knowing more about the Mind World won't hurt! In fact, it could help her _not_ get hurt!"

Even though she really did want to take a peek at those books, Riley couldn't help but smile. She had only known each of her emotions as living beings for a short while, but already she had grown to love them. They were dynamic, fun, varied in personality...

And reflecting on that suddenly had an idea come to her. At least it might take Fear's mind off of his protectiveness...

"Hey, guys!" she grinned, stepping away from the windows and manuals and closer to the core memory holder. "Guess who I am!"

Fighting the urge to snicker, Riley balled her hands into fists, crouching down a bit and making her voice lower and more gravelly-sounding. "What?! We lost the hockey game?! That's not fair, that shot the other team made was a FOUL! AAGGGGHHHH!"

"Anger," said everyone aside from the aforementioned red emotion.

"That is _so_ you, Anger!" Joy exclaimed, cracking up and pulling said emotion close before giving him a noogie.

Anger's eyes lowered in an irritated scowl, but once Joy's hand left his head, he managed to look up at Riley with a slight chuckle. "Gotta admit, that _is_ a pretty good impression. All you're missing is the hair on fire."

Fear gasped, looking horrified at the idea as if he thought Riley would set her hair on fire and paint herself red to complete her "impression". "Don't even joke about that!"

With Fear being the next one who had spoken, Riley's eyes got a bit more sneaky. After a pause, she suddenly straightened up like a stick, making her face appear scared as she started running around in a mock panic. "Ahhhh! Tree root, look out, we're all gonna DIIEE!"

"Oh, oh, you're Fear!" Joy exclaimed, bouncing up and down.

Said purple emotion crossed his arms, looking a bit in denial. "Hey, I don't act like that!" His look of confidence faded after a few moments as he then paused and looked cautiously at the others. "Do I?"

But Riley wasn't done. She held up her hand in front of herself, waving her fingers as if they were the legs of an insect. Her eyes widened before she screamed and stumbled backwards. "SPIDER, SPIDER! Get away, it could be poisonous!"

Anger chuckled looking at Fear with a smug expression. "Now _that_ is you."

The single hair on Fear's head drooped. As embarrassing as it was to admit, that was what he'd do in such a situation when he was really scared—try to scramble as far away from said spider as possible.

Riley stopped her frantic scrambling, pausing in thought for a moment before suddenly recoiling, looking revolted. "Is she _seriously_ wearing that? That shirt's so last year!"

Fear snorted. "Totally Disgust."

Riley flicked her hair back in an over-dramatic way, clearly having a blast as she took on a bit of Disgust's tone. "And whose idea was it to have broccoli pizza be a thing?! Really, people have no taste!"

"Wow, that _is_ like me," Disgust admitted, looking up at Riley with an expression of admiration. "You're a pretty good impressionist!"

Riley opened her mouth to thank Disgust for the compliment, only to close it as a thoughtful expression crossed her face. Her shoulders slumped, her expression became droopy, and her voice more morose. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're me," Sadness said, raising her hand.

Riley tried not to smile, even though it was hard not to because she was having so much fun. "Sometimes we need to cry, like when homework gets wrecked by spilled milk and Riley worked real hard on it..."

The blue emotion actually tried to manage a smile. Riley really was getting a hang of what her internal companions were like. Even if remembering that happening was sad and causing her to frown at the memory...

Joy on the other hand was beaming. Riley's impressions were actually enjoyable to watch. "Oh, this means I'm last!"

Riley laughed as, in a sharp contrast to her mimicry of Sadness, she suddenly changed her voice to sound more hyper and bouncy, letting all her excitement and happiness show as she hurried over to the others. She started practically dancing with Fear, then Joy, since they were tallest, before pulling the gang close. "Hey, everyone, up and at'em! We're going to make sure that nothing gets in the way of Riley having a great day!"

Giving her emotions a friendly hug before releasing them, she began practically dancing over to the console in a very Joy-ish way before raising her hands. "And with just a few little button presses—"

Fear screamed and abandoned his post in front of the manuals, racing over to try to stop her. "Wait, Riley, no!"

"—then we'll help Riley have the best day ev—AH!"

The human girl broke off her Joy impression as she leapt back, her gleeful expression instantly morphed to one of shock. Her eyes were widened, and once everyone else noticed, they did the same, Fear freezing to the spot. Riley pressing the buttons in that last moment hadn't done anything physically to her body outside, at least not that they could tell, but it _did_ do something to the console.

It lit up just as when an emotion touched it.

Only this time it was brighter, almost blindingly so, like that moment when Joy had first touched the single console button when Riley was born. And this glow wasn't an emotion's color...

"Um, guys?" Riley asked, her joyful demeanor replaced by a curious uncertainty as her hand hovered over the console. "What does white mean?"

"Don't know!" Fear exclaimed, looking nearly catatonic like he thought the world would explode all around them at any moment. "I-It's never done that before! It's just turned our colors!"

And the console turning white below the controls wasn't the only thing that happened.

Headquarters brightened up, the purple hue that coated the walls and floor becoming more illuminated, almost as if Riley were awake. Fear then let out a yelp as a rattling much like an earthquake reverberated from the shelves where memories were stored. And like rocks tumbling down a cliff, sphere after sphere showed up one after the other, several mixed with colors of varying emotions, but all of them possessing the same silvery glow that was now present on the console.

Fear, his eyes wide in terror, cried out and gripped onto the nearest thing, which happened to be Anger before he was smacked away. "What's happening?! We've NEVER had memories look like that!"

Once the group got over their "yes this is happening" shock, they ran over to the new onslaught of memories, their expressions growing more surprised as they saw the scenes depicted though them, moment by moment. Riley landing in Dream Productions, hugging the three emotions there, driving the train, being here in Headquarters...

As if things couldn't get more weird, a chiming noise sounded from off to the left, farther back than the shelves where short term memories were stored. And the chime was directly accompanied by a glow that shone with the brightness of a miniature sun—but not the color of an emotion.

All six of the occupants of Headquarters turned, all of them just as confused. The sound was unfamiliar to Riley, but the emotions recognized that particular chime any day...

The flower-shaped mechanism next to the shelves that stored a day's short-term memories spun near the bottom, bringing up this new memory that shone brighter than the average one. Moving up a little thanks to the mechanism, a small wall that normally blocked the lowest pathway slid out of the way, and the memory started to roll down a pathway just at the floor.

The group started racing after it.

"It's a core memory!" Joy exclaimed in awe.

Sadness's eyes widened. "But it's white..."

"W-Why is it white?" Fear gulped, anticipating the worst as he looked from the white core memory to the plethora of memories that now filled the short-term shelves.

"Because we weren't the ones who touched the console," Anger pointed out _, "Riley_ did _."_

"Yeah, but..." Disgust stared at the memory as if hypnotized as it went along its path. "I thought only emotions could create memory orbs..."

As the core memory hit the bottom of the holder since the pillar was raised, Joy raced over and picked up the memory, turning it over in her hands. The memory swirled with the white aura that made it shine like an ethereal mist, its prism-like color almost mesmerizing. Joy brushed her finger over the surface, observing that this core memory went from when Riley was first doing impersonations of her emotions to that moment where she had touched the console and had caused it to light up with that glow it had never possessed before.

The placement of the other core memories shifted slightly, a new indent appearing in the pillar-shaped holder to make room for the new one. Waiting for it to be placed and create a new Personality Island.

Riley's eyes widened in a sudden realization at the white color, glancing briefly at the new memories on the shelves before turning back to the core one. "I think... I think I know why these memories are white."

Sadness looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Remember what I learned in science class a few years back?" Riley questioned, turning to face her emotions. "About how white light actually contains all the colors?"

After a pause, the others nodded.

Riley stepped closer, looking briefly at the memory shelves before kneeling next to Joy, peering at the core memory in fascination. "When I'm here, I don't need you guys to express emotions. The white core memories must be because I can express emotion on my own while I'm here!"

Joy ran her fingers over the sphere. Reflecting on Riley's reasoning, it actually made sense. Each emotion had their own color, but Riley, here, had all of them.

"I think Long Term Memory is going to have to make a new section," Sadness said.

Fear seemed to be trying to calm down, looking at the white-hued memories with more anxiety. There was now a way of collecting memories here at night, but none of them had caused the Mind World to spontaneously explode, or Riley to be hurt so far. No crumbling islands, no erratic spasms or fainting spells from their host. It just seemed brighter here in Headquarters, with a new class of memories. Nothing wrong, no big deal...

Riley looked at the little nerve in concern. "Fear? Are you okay?"

"Well, um... so far nothing terrible has happened, so..." He forced a smile, for Riley's sake. "... Maybe?"

That was a good enough answer for her.

Joy smiled a little as she looked at the other inhabitants of Headquarters—her gaze fell on Riley in particular. "Hey Riley," she said, her glow brightening along with her smile as she held the new core memory in front of her. "You wanna do the honors?"

"Huh?"

"Placing the core memory," Joy said, giving a nod to the core memory holder behind her. "I mean, you _did_ make this one."

Riley paused, a bit stunned at the offer. Not only had her presence here in Headquarters activated a flood of new memories of a type they had never seen before, but Joy wanted _her_ to place this new core memory?

The thought excited her. She knew that core memories like these created Personality Islands, based on the briefing that the emotions had given her, but now she was actually going to see one created! And it would be _her_ doing!

She started to reach for it, but a purple hand stopped her, followed by Fear's violet eyes looking at her.

"Woah, woah, wait, _you_ putting in a core memory?!" Fear gasped, looking jittery and seemingly trying to debate on whether he should just grab the core memory and place it in the holder himself—or just trying to force it to Long Term. " _That_ core memory?! What if—"

"Fear," Disgust groaned, "it's not like the core memory's going to blow up if she holds it!"

"How do you know?" Fear exclaimed, all sorts of thoughts suddenly running through his head that he hadn't pondered before. "This definitely falls into that category of 'consciousness tampering' that the mind manuals warned us about even more than Riley touching the console did! What if Riley placing that memory," he squeaked, pointing at the orb in question before giving his companions a helpless expression, "does something bad?"

"It doesn't matter who places it!" Anger retorted. "Point is, it's here, it's a core memory, and it's Riley's." Shaking his head in exasperation at Fear's worry, the brick-like emotion craned his head up to look at Riley. "Joy's right, Riley—you oughta be the one to place it."

With a grateful look at Anger, Joy held the new shining memory toward Riley, her smile becoming gentle. "Take your memory, Riley. Make a new island."

Her head spinning, Riley carefully took the memory from Joy and held it in her hands. She flinched as its surface was cool to the touch, almost like a sphere of crystal. For a moment, she squinted her eyes at the image of herself, there in Headquarters with her emotions and reenacting their traits.

 _This is_ my _memory,_ she thought to herself, barely able to believe it even though she was staring it in the face. _I mean, the others are too, but I..._ I _did this! I_ made _this core memory!_

With this feeling of awe surging in her head, she looked down at her emotions before stepping close to the core memory holder. Staying down to be on the same level as the mechanism, and hearing Fear repeatedly mutter something that sounded like "Please don't explode," in the process, she gently placed the core memory in its designated slot.

The memory was accepted with a click, and a new pathway of light extended from the core memory holder. The group raced toward the windows, Riley getting a much better view of the islands than she had on the wayward Train of Thought. Pressing close to the glass, Riley and the emotions watched as the new light bridge took shape.

The light spread out and upward to form the shape of the new Personality Island, the bright light fading to reveal the colors and shapes that made up the newest structure of the Mind World. Much like Family Island, statues towered over as one of the main focal points. However, on this there were six silver statues, one a good deal taller than the rest—it was Riley and her emotions.

To the left of the statues, similar to the Golden Gate Bridge on Family Island, there was a towering replica of Headquarters itself as seen from the outside. Shelves of memories of many colors—including those joined by the silver glow of those obtained at night in the Mind World—surrounded the exterior, with a miniature Dream Productions in the back as her initial gateway.

"It's amazing!" Riley exclaimed.

"And a bit disorienting," Fear admitted, feeling somewhat faint at seeing the miniature replica of Headquarters below them, as if he were looking at the Mind World from far away.

Riley couldn't help but stare in awe. It was just the sort of island that she would have imagined for a core memory such as this. Had her thoughts on its appearance somehow caused it to be that way? Or had the Island's spontaneous structure been just formed out of aspects of the core memory itself?

Either way, this Island wasn't Joy's and Sadness's like Family Island. Or Fear's and Disgust's like Tragic Vampire Romance Island.

This new Island was Riley's. Only Riley's.

"Well," Joy piped up, "what are you gonna name it?"

Broken out of her thoughts, Riley looked down at the golden-skinned emotion, who was gazing up at her with an expectant grin. "Wait, _me_?"

"Sure! Every island needs a name!"

"But—"

Disgust looked at their host with a smug grin. "Riley, you made it, you name it!"

By the looks on all their faces, all of Headquarters' normal inhabitants were waiting in anticipation (with additional anxiety from Fear at the "consciousness tampering"). This opportunity had been given, and none of them were going to take it away from their young host.

Awed, Riley stared down at the Island, putting careful thought into it. Whatever name she gave it had to be special. Focusing on its features, various names popped into her head, so to speak, as she tried to think.

Emotion Island? She had been imitating the emotions at the time...

Headquarters Island? She was there, after all, and Headquarters was a prominent figure on the Island...

Memory Island? Memories were a prominent part of it too...

Dreaming Island? She did get here through dreaming...

Mind World Island? The Island _was_ like a miniature Mind World...

But after several moments of those ideas, her eyes widened as she realized that she was going about it the completely wrong way. Those names were focusing on what the Island consisted of. But this was an Island of Personality, it was meant to represent an aspect of herself. It had to represent what it really was. What _she_ was.

A small smile crossed her face as she stood aside to let her emotion companions see it better. She took a deep breath, hoping they'd like the name. "Before tonight, I accepted that you guys were little voices in my head, but I didn't think I'd ever get to see it aside from you guys telling me about it." She laughed lightly, the corners of her mouth crinkling into a smile as she looked down at her emotions.

They, even Fear, smiled back.

"And now you guys introduced me to so much and, well, here I am... with you guys. And I love it."

Joy sniffled, actually feeling like crying tears of happiness. Sadness was already crying.

The smile on Riley's face grew as she wiped away a single tear that had formed at the corner of her eye. "Even now I've seen more than I could have ever imagined—"

Disgust couldn't help but chuckle at that, shaking her head in amusement. "And you still have a lot more to see."

Riley nodded in agreement. "And honestly, this never would have happened if Anger hadn't gone and broken the intercom."

Anger grinned triumphantly.

"So I've decided on a name for it." Riley said, glancing down at the island her core memory had created. "Possibility Island."

The brief silence that followed was broken by Joy letting out a happy squeal and leaping up into the air. "I love it, Riley! That's a perfect name!"

"Really fits it," Disgust said, nodding her approval.

"And fits you," added Sadness, smiling a little.

Feeling as happy as if she had just won the hockey playoffs for her team, Riley grinned widely, kneeling down and pulling in all her emotions for a group hug.

Even Anger didn't protest as the five looked up at her happily, the human girl wrapping her arms tightly around her mental companions.

Their presence was soothing, comforting...

But it was then that Riley noticed a light beginning to form around her, feeling a bit more separate from them, a bit too relaxed. She released her grip on the others, who looked up at her in alarm. "Hey, wait, huh?—"

With a flash of light, Riley was gone, the lighting in Headquarters faded, and the sky darkened into its normal nighttime look, stars dotting the sky.

"AH!" Fear screamed, looking frantically around, giving a glance toward the mind manuals as if thinking she had somehow been able to teleport there. "W-What happened?! Where's Riley go—"

"Calm DOWN!" Anger snapped, punching him and stopping the frantic nerve in his tracks. "Look at the sky, she just went into REM sleep!"

"B-But..."

"Lucid dreaming is hard," Sadness reminded them softly. "And that was her first time. We're not gonna be able to talk to her again until she wakes up."

For a moment, there was a silence among the group. Without Riley here, all of a sudden Headquarters felt... empty.

But eventually, the silence was broken with a sigh from Joy, followed by one of her signature smiles. "Well, hey, it worked! We can actually talk to Riley and bring her here!"

"But it got cut short so suddenly!" Fear exclaimed. "What if something like that happens if we go with her elsewhere?"

"It's okay, she'll just go to REM sleep and we'll talk to her in the morning!" Joy said, patting him on the back and keeping up a sense of cheerfulness. "The more she lucid dreams, the longer she'll be able to stay!"

"Well, they do say practice makes perfect," Disgust pointed out.

"And I," said Anger as he started to walk up the ramp, "need sleep practice for tonight if we're going to be doing any more of this 'staying up til after midnight' stuff. See you all in the morning."

"Same here," Disgust said, following after him up the ramp. It was then that she paused, turning back to Joy who was looking at the newest core memory. "Oh, Joy?"

Joy turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

Disgust offered their emotion ringleader a smile. "That was great. I'd be totally cool with having Riley back again."

"Me too," Fear admitted, "we'll just have to be extra careful!". He put his hand up to his brow in a salute. "I will be on round-the-clock Riley Safety Patrol!"

"You already basically are," Disgust said, rolling her eyes slightly as she went upstairs as well. "Good night, guys.".

"Good night!" Joy called cheerfully as Disgust, Fear, and Anger headed off to bed. Now she just had to send those new memories down to Long Term—

"Joy?"

The yellow emotion in question turned at the voice, peeking around at the core memory holder to see Sadness, staring once more at the memory that powered Family Island.

For a moment, just as when Riley had been there, the two stared at the memory in silence.

Finally, Sadness spoke up. "... When are we gonna tell her?"

Joy looked at Sadness in silence, her expression almost as morose as her companion's. There had been so much going on then. The loss of the core memories. Anger, Disgust, and Fear trying to hold things down in Headqaurters. Bing Bong's sacrifice to save Riley...

Finally, Joy let out a sigh, taking Sadness's hand. "When it's the right time.". The corners of her lips turned up slightly as she looked down at Sadness. "I wanted her to have fun on her first night here."

Sadness nodded at her in understanding. Riley deserved that.

Their gazes turned to the newest core memory, the prism-like light shining back at them.

"I like Possibility Island already," Sadness said after a moment.

"Me too." There was a hint of pride in Joy's voice. "And it's all Riley's."

After a pause, Sadness quietly walked away from the core memory holder and over to the intercom. She turned back to Joy. "Think Riley can hear us even when she's in REM sleep?"

Joy paused, going over to the intercom as well. She had never really given much thought to where Riley's consciousness was when she went into REM sleep, whether Dream Productions decided to give her dreams or not. But it couldn't hurt to try.

The golden emotion smiled as she looked at the intercom. "Good night, Riley. Sleep well."

"See you in the morning," Sadness added.

As they stepped away from the intercom, intending to send the new memories to Long Term, Joy stopped in her tracks.

"Wait," Joy looked at Sadness, realizing they had forgotten something, "we're gonna need to bring the Train of Thought back then too!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot..."

They looked at one another for a moment before Joy waved a hand dismissively.

"Ah, let's not worry about that," the yellow emotion said, patting Sadness on the back. "It'll be there in the morning."

"Like Riley's new island."

Joy glanced over at the core memory holder at Sadness's words It felt almost like a dream, but Riley had been here, just as they were. And had literally brought something new to her mind. A serene smile crossed Joy's face.

"Exactly."

As Joy then sent down the new night memories to Long Term, she and Sadness headed off to bed as well. With the light from Joy's glow fading as she went upstairs, the only light remaining on the main floor were those generated by the core memories—with more of a glow joining them than before as Riley's new memory shone with its newfound, ethereal light.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, Riley's created a new kind of memory, nothing is the same anymore! Her first trip to the Mind World may be over, but don't worry, there'll be more to come once she gets more of a hang of lucid dreaming! So, how will Riley handle the next day in the human world after what she's just seen in her mind? You'll find out next chapter!**

 **Speaking of next chapter, my current plan is to try to, when circumstances permit, get a new chapter of this up every week or two. Til then, hope you enjoyed and review! :). Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, faved, and followed so far, and if anyone wants to draw fan-art for this story, be my guest! ;).**


	8. Scatterbrained

**A/N: Hey everyone! Would have gotten this up sooner, but a combination of work, vacation, Internet troubles, and trying to figure out exactly how to progress with this chapter put a few snags in that. You ever have a story where you know more-or-less how you want most chapters to play out, but there's a couple where you're like "Okay, how do I do this one?" That was my thing here.**

 **Also, here we have more Art of Inside Out referencing incoming! Seeing as we never saw Joy's room in the film itself, I went with what it's shown to look like in the art book. ;) So with that said, onward to the morning following Riley's first adventure into the Mind World!**

 **Disclaimer: I love Inside Out, but don't own it.**

* * *

Joy, as usual, was the first one to wake up.

Her mind was roused from sleep, yawning and stretching her feet over the edge of her bathtub bed, her eyes lazily glancing through the window room next to it to the makeshift building she termed her "happy place". After having stayed up a good portion of the night, just laying here felt nice, and the water helped her think...

But her sleepiness was gone almost instantly as the events of last night came flooding back.

That wonderful time with Riley entering the Mind World hadn't been a dream. It was real and had actually happened. And Riley should be waking up any minute now—Joy had to be there to greet her!

Leaping out of the bathtub and letting her feet land on the fluffy green mat with her name embroidered on it, Joy quickly saved her pillow from falling into the tub that served as her bed and shook the water off her dress and body.

One of the benefits about being a particle being: she didn't have to wait too long to dry. If she focused her energy enough, her exterior light basically could do it for her.

Grabbing her accordion from its place against the wall, Joy quickly glanced at the mind mail that had come through the mail slot at the door. A newsletter about Dream Productions' next dream plan, stuff from the Mind Workers—

Wait...

Joy paused, shuffling through the mail and picking one of them up. While most were mail that she could mostly discard, one of them was from the Forgetters Paula and Bobby who went around Long Term Memory. And the front was labeled, " _Important. Deliver ASAP._ "

Joy had a feeling what it was about. And as she opened the envelope and let the words of the letter meet her eyes, she realized that her hunch was exactly right:

" _Dear Joy,_

 _Tonight we noticed a very weird phenomena in Long Term. Not only did memories come down here in the middle of the night, but they were rimmed with a white glow instead of the ones you emotions have. Looking at them, we guess that means Riley's "lucid dreaming" idea worked. Tell her we say hi! And if Riley made those memories (which we assume she did since they aren't any of yours, not sure what we're supposed to call them), tell her we say congrats!_ "

Joy smiled, though part of her wondered why in the world the Forgetters had mentioned the message was so important. It seemed very conversational, really. Maybe the Forgetters were just wanting to rush the mind mail just for the heck of it. After all, they _did_ like sending up that dang gum commercial for no reason.

And come to think of it, she began to wonder if these new Riley-made memories had a specific name...

But as she continued reading, she realized _why_ the Forgetters had said the message was important:

" _We're going to need to get a new section of Long Term in the M section for those new Mind World Visit-category memories, but they need to be organized by subject too. We need to do a bit of an overhaul in Long Term Memory as the new section appears, including the manuals having time to adjust to the new layout. Long Term's never had to have a section adjustment on this kind of scale before, so organizing will be a bit hectic._

 _So long story short, Riley will be a little scatterbrained for a day. Sorry!_

 _Sincerely,_

 _Forgetters Paula and Bobby._

 _P.S. Loving the new Island of Personality!_ "

Joy's eyes widened. Scatterbrained? That already didnt sound like the most desireable state to be in—not to mention being uncertain as to what those effects would actually be. She had to admit that at least this whole "Mind World travel for the first time" thing hadn't taken place the night before that test of hers. Riley would never be able to concentrate then!

Then again, Joy couldn't help but feel concerned with how long it was going to last. If the overhaul took only a few hours, then Riley could study for the second part of the day with no problems. If it took a full 24 hours, Riley trying to study was going to be a _lot_ more troubling.

Setting the letter aside, Joy still kept up her usual smile. After all, it was a new day, and there was some talking to Riley to be done!

But she knew that Fear wasn't going to be too happy about this effect of "consciousness tampering"...

Holding her accordion, she raced out her room into the hallway, and went lightly rapping on each door to her companions' rooms, playing a little according solo to get them motivated.

"Rise and shine, everybody! Great new day today!"

The responses she heard from each one were varied. A mumbled "Good morning," from Sadness, a cry of surprise from Fear, grumbling from Anger...

And just as she was about to knock on Disgust's door, said door opened before she had a chance. And what she saw caused her accordion solo to halt.

"Uh, Disgust?" Joy said, blinking at Disgust's appearance and placing her accordion at her side, letting the sound of it folding echo through the hallway, "what are you doing?"

"Solving a certain little _problem_."

Curiosity piqued at the conversation as they trudged out of their rooms, the others followed the hallway as Disgust turned to face them. And they saw what made Joy stop so suddenly.

One side of Disgust's hair was noticeably different, a straightener being used to firmly pull down that little curl on the side of her hair. Aside from the presence of a straightener clamped on the end to hold her hair down, and the green color, it looked shockingly like Riley's hair.

Caught a bit off guard at this unexpected surprise, Joy tried to think of a nice response. "Well, um... I like it." She managed a sheepish smile.

Anger tucked his copy of _The Mind Reader_ under his arm, looking queerly at Disgust. "Okay, what's with the hairstyle change?"

"I've been keeping this side of my hair straightened for the past 10 minutes." Disgust beamed, gesturing to her elaborate dressing-room-like mirror that looked like it wouldn't be too out of place in Dream Productions. She looked quite proud of herself as she kept her grip steady on the straightener. "By making my hair look like Riley's, no one can say that I look like—"

The moment the straightener was released, the green emotion's plan backfired, and that side of her hair was brought into that broccoli-like flip on the side once more.

"Broccoli," Anger finished with an amused chuckle.

Eyes widening, Disgust looked back from the straightener to the flip in her hair that she could see out of the corner of her eye. She glanced backwards at the mirror for a moment, confirming this was true, and did a slow facepalm. Perhaps she really _was_ cursed to look like her least favorite thing in the universe.

The light of Headquarters suddenly brightened, indicating that their host was now roused from the unconsciousness of her dreamless sleep. And for Joy, all thoughts of Disgust's attempt at a new hairstyle flew out the window.

"Riley's awake!" the yellow emotion squealed, racing even faster downstairs as if Christmas had come early.

The other emotions hurried to catch up, Disgust still looking a bit miffed that her attempt at restyling her hair to appear less broccoli-like was a failure.

Fear couldn't help but look the most nervous out of all of them. What if something changed about Riley thanks to what had occured last night? After all, she had that new Personality Island...

But all of them couldn't help but have their moods brighten as they saw the light of the glowing white sphere in the core memory holder, and the new Island outside. The memory orbs seen displayed around Possibility Island were moving almost like a fluid stream of memories.

"Hey, Possibility Island is working great!" Joy exclaimed, her smile brightening as much as her glow.

"And so far, no disaster!" Fear had to admit, daring himself to feel relieved at that as the white core memory glowed in its holder just like the others. His shoulders relaxed slightly, glad to see that nothing seemed to have changed overnight as a result of the presence of the newest core memory.

The group then turned their attention to the front of Headquarters to watch the screen of the Mind's Eye, and the emotions were met with a view of the ceiling, then Riley's bedspread as the girl lifted her head from her pillow.

Joy beamed, sprinting toward the area of the wall where the intercom was as if in a racing competition. "Good morning, Riley!"

Outside, Riley flinched a bit, not quite used yet to hearing a voice from inside her head right upon waking up. But she smiled all the same. "Good morning, Joy..." The 12-year-old yawned, putting a hand to her forehead and blinking a few times to wake herself up more. So much sleep in her eyes...

Joy felt like doing a happy little dance, grinning as she raced toward the console and the other emotions took their places as well. "How you doing this morning?"

"Kinda... groggy, actually," Riley mumbled, feeling as if her thoughts were in a haze. Could be from last night's mind adventure...

"Groggy—oh, I forgot!" Joy clapped her hands and looked quickly around. "Quick, who's gonna volunteer to bring the Train of Thought back to Dream Productions?"

All the other emotions chorused a name that happened to not be their own.

"Someone who won't cause it to topple all over the place, _please_ ," Fear begged, Riley driving the train last night still on his mind.

Joy grinned at the purple emotion. "Thank you for volunteering!"

Fear leapt back a bit. "W-What?! I didn't volunteer!"

"Well, you _did_ seem to imply that you would be that someone who wouldn't have the Train topple," Anger said with a devilish smirk.

"But Riley might need me!"

"Oh, she doesn't need the rest of us?" retorted Disgust.

"She doesn't need all of us every second..." Sadness pointed out.

"Guys, hold on!"

The emotions stopped their bickering and turned to face the monitor, for it had been Riley who had spoken. Gathering her clothes for the day, Riley let a light laugh escape her. " _I'll_ decide who gets to go." A thought then crossed her mind, and she frowned. "One less little person to spy on me."

The emotions placed their hands tensely on the edge of the console, as if waiting for a ride to start up. Riley had a perfectly reasonable right to call the shots herself. After all, she was aware of their existence now, and she was their host. Now that the connection was established, it was only fair that Riley got a chance to make the rules.

Riley tapped a finger to the side of her head, her head bowed and gaze lowered to the floor as she thought for a moment. Finally, she answered, the emotions not seeing the smile form on her face. "Fear, you go."

Fear's eyes widened, the single strand of hair on his head drooping a bit. "Me?! Why me?"

"You volunteered," Riley snickered with a devious grin.

"Told ya," Anger said, crossing his arms at the purple emotion who now looked very jumpy at the spotlight being suddenly put on him.

"But, but I..." Finally, Fear lowered his head in defeat, going over to the door on the left. "Fine," he called as it opened. "Riley, stay out of danger for the next 30 minutes or so!"

With that, the door closed shut behind him, only to open a few seconds later with Fear carrying a few boxes, staggering under their weight. "Might as well unload things first!"

"Thanks Fear!" Joy called.

"I kinda forgot there was some stuff we didn't bring in..." Sadness admitted, feeling a little guilty.

"Aw, it's okay, Sadness," Joy said, giving the blue emotion a light nudge to ensure her teardrop-shaped friend that there were no hard feelings. "Bringing Riley to Headquarters was _way_ more important than bringing in a few idea boxes!"

"Besides," Fear said, carefully trying to put the boxes down, "we brought them in now—"

In that moment, one of the boxes at the top fell over, and Riley cringed a little as she heard the sound of glass breaking in her head. Not a pleasant sound no matter what plane of existence it was heard from.

"Everything okay in there?" she asked after a moment.

"Yeah," Disgust called back as she glanced at Fear trying frantically to put the other boxes down and checking on the first box. "Fear just smashed some idea bulbs and now we gotta get more."

"But luckily some of them were saved, and all the other boxes are fine!" Fear added, giving said boxes a few nervous glances to make sure there were no spontaneous spillovers. He then headed toward the door again. "So Riley, stay out of trouble for about 30 minutes, I'll be back ASAP!"

The door shut again as Fear exited, and the other emotions could hear the Train of Thought starting up.

"Better make it about an hour, Riley," Disgust teased. "Fear will probably drive it _real_ slow—"

She was cut off as she heard a sort of zooming sound echo over by Headquarters. The remaining four managed to turn toward the back windows just in time to see the Train of Thought speed down to Dream Productions like a bullet. Albeit a much more steady bullet in contrast to Riley's roller-coaster ride of an attempt the night before.

Disgust just stared. "Wow."

"He's probably worried something will happen if he's gone for too long," Sadness pointed out.

Riley couldnt help but hope that Fear would be able to drive the train much more smoothly than her, then deciding to focus on the plan for the day. After all, seeing the sights of San Francisco like Golden Gate Park was supposed to be fun.

But as she looked around, really focusing on her room, things seemed… less impressive than they normally did.

Not to say that she didn't _like_ her room, she definitely did, and nothing had changed about it like her Praire Dogs poster suddenly turning plaid. It just seemed that there was a lack of... well, life to it that she hadn't recognized yesterday.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Riley's groggy thoughts started to collect into images as the emotions at the console saw what she pictured, images of her imagination. But what they saw immediately caused surprise, and the others knew that if Fear had been there, he would have started panicking.

Riley was imagining a few brilliantly-colored memory orbs sitting on shelves in her bedroom, wanting to bask in their comforting glow and replay those past experiences. A memory rimmed in white came to project onto the Mind's Eye, and Riley's imaginings only grew.

"Wow, you're thinking about last night a lot," Joy commented with a grin, the console lighting up with her cheerful golden light.

"How can I _not_?" Riley insisted, her mind filling with mental images of all the things she had seen, imaginging memory orbs around her room. "I mean, I wish that I could just drag some things from the Mind World and place them here!" Grinning, she went over to the dresser by her door and glanced where her lamp was placed on top. "Maybe I could even replace my lamp with a memory orb or something!"

With her mind conjuring a shimmering memory orb in place of her lamp, Riley found that the imagining of memory orbs around her room seemed so clear... almost too clear. Maybe it was the sort of groggy sluggish feeling that came to her as her Train of Thought was guided back to its proper place. Maybe it was just a feeling of exhaustion from her consciousness technically having stayed awake a few extra hours.

Or maybe it was because the Mind World had seemed so fantastic in comparison to what she saw before her now.

"Oh, um, by the way, Riley," Joy quickly said as a memory of Riley seeing Headquarters for the first time projected itself. "I, heheh, got some mail from the Mind Workers this morning and you, well..." She fiddled with her hands as Riley paused in her steps. "You may be a bit... scatterbrained today."

Riley arched her brow. "Scatterbrained? What do you mean by—"

It was then that about five different memories flashed in her mind in quick succession, all of them of different emotions. As the Riley-created memory playing at that moment was sent like a bullet to the floor, the five new memories that had been sent up were knocked from the projector in turn.

The emotions had to duck in order to avoid getting smacked in the face by one, and a light clinking sound was heard as the now-grounded memories bumped into each other.

Riley blinked, completely confused. The emotions cringed and looked at the memories that rolled lazily on the floor before coming to a stop.

After a moment, Riley was the one to break the silence.

"... What just happened?"

"I think that was the scatterbrained thing they were talking about," Sadness said uneasily, glancing at the memory orbs that were now on the floor.

"But, uh, don't worry, Riley!" Joy said, trying to reassure their host as she sent those stray memories back up a recall tube one by one. "This will probably happen just for a little bit and everything will be fine!"

"And even if it happens again," Disgust said, looking a bit hesitant, "hopefully it will just happen that quick only once."

* * *

"Okay, was anyone actually _able_ to pay attention to the readings today?"

"There were so many memories in here by the second one I couldn't hear anything!"

Riley, in the backseat of her parents' car, felt like smacking her head to knock the thoughts away.

Too much imagery, too many memories. Even with her emotions trying to send the memories down to Long Term again, it was like her thoughts were on fast-forward. The morning had been near-unberable already, how would the rest of the day fare?

Fear just stared at the screen, near-frozen, his hands fidgeting at his sides in case he needed to suddenly reach for a button or lever on the console. The moment he had returned, saw memories littering the floor, and been informed about the current problem, he had started screaming and begged Riley not to go anywhere else thanks to issues the whole "scatterbrained" thing might cause.

Seeing as Riley couldn't exactly say "Fear says I shouldn't go anywhere today," to her parents, she went with them anyway.

"'A little scatterbrained'? A _little_ scatterbrained?!" Anger fumed, sslamming his fist on the console and causing Riley to feel similarly irritated. "This is so scatterbrained we barely can see anything out there!"

Riley had to admit to herself that she was almost glad for it. That way the emotions weren't quite as chatty in her head right now, and she was feeling a bit hazy as it was.

Not that thought after random thought popping up in her head was helping either, though...

But it was the stream of memories that kept coming in that affected Riley most, and not just because every time the Headquarters team tried to send them back to Long Term, more took their place. Seeing all those in her Mind's Eye, especially the Mind World Visit memories, caused an additional problem to surface. A bigger problem.

Something that Fear had a bad feeling could last a good deal longer than a day...

Gazing at the bridge in the distance, Riley remembered how immense and massive and wonderful the Golden Gate Bridge seemed every time she went by it. Even after having lived here for a year, it never ceased to amaze her.

Until today.

Today was different. And not necessarily the good kind of different.

It was like she was looking at a form of stained glass that had been perfect every other time she looked at it, but now was a little cracked and flawed, a little less wonderful. A little less real than it should be.

After everything she had seen in the Mind World, San Francisco—and the Outside world in general—seemed inadequate in comparison.

Riley couldn't help but recall how the other day, she had heard Disgust mention that the Golden Gate bridge should be called the Red Steel Bridge. Perhaps she had been right.

A clink was heard on the Short Term shelves as a primarily green memory orb rolled into existence with gold swirled in, joining the few red-mixed memories that resulted from annoyance at these scatterbrained happenings.

Joy glanced over at Disgust in surprise. No other emotion had usually touched the console when seeing the Bridge; there had been no need to. Why now? "Disgust? What was that for?"

Said green emotion looked at her companion in a mixture of exasperation and sympathy. "Well, after Riley saw us here last night, it's not my fault if she thinks its less impressive then before."

On the outside, Riley couldn't help but feel that Disgust was right. What was once a magnificent structure to her now seemed... almost inadequate, even, dare she think it, _dull_. It was like looking at a watercolor painting that had once been beautiful, but was now becoming washed out, the formerly crisp outlines a bit blurred.

How could that bridge be standing so isolated when she knew of a place where it existed among towering statues? How could she consider it so grand anymore when last night she had driven her Train of Thought nearly a mile high that made the Islands of Personality seem so small in comparison, the Bridge's replica included?

After everything she had seen last night...

As memory orbs kept popping up in Headquarters seemingly of their own volition, the emotions still a bit startled by the white glow surrounding the edges of some of them, Riley couldn't help but miss that world inside her head. Here, there was no Train of Thought that she could pilot high above everything, no production studio where dreams were literally made, no glowing spheres that literally contained a memory within them in a way much like a video yet so much more magical…

"Are you okay?" Sadness suddenly asked from inside her head, causing Riley to flinch at the voice.

Riley moved her head up and down in a slight nod. After all, she couldn't really answer them with her parents in the car... She looked out the window and placed her hand on her chin, so they could barely see her reflection. Perhaps it was because of Sadness touching the console, but the look on Riley's face was... almost sadly nostalgic.

"You're still thinking about last night."

"Well how can she not?" Anger pointed out to Sadness. "Those partially-white memory orbs keep popping up in here and we're not even recalling them ourselves!"

The five in Headquarters couldn't help but glance at the projection part of the Mind's Eye, rather perplexed, sympathetic, and a little bit annoyed. For the past few minutes, even if an emotion had called up a memory on their own, like of the other times the Golden Gate Bridge had enthralled Riley and them, it would soon be knocked out of place by a white-rimmed memory of the night before that took its place. And those in turn were occasionally knocked away by yet _another_ memory, ones that had no relation to the situation.

Favorite TV shows. What shirt was best. Remembering trying on Mom's glasses once out of curiosity and crashing into the wall.

And the emotions, as well as Riley, were finding themselves simultaneously irritated, uneasy, and confused.

"OKay, this whole 'scatterbrained' thing is getting _really_ annoying," Disgust commented.

"Well, just a few more hours of this and Long Term Memory will be properly fixed!" Joy said, spreading her arms and trying to keep things positive.

 _A few more **hours**?!_ Riley's vision of the Outside went dark to the emotions as she placed her hand over her eyes, sharing Anger's sentiment as she heard him slam his fist on the console and utter that very thought.

"Well, yeah, but it won't be so bad!" Joy said confidently. "Another hour, maybe two, and that'll be it!"

The confident expression on Joy's face fell as the current memory was knocked away by one of Riley driving the Train of Thought, only for that memory to be knocked away itself a few seconds later by another white memory.

"... Hopefully," the yellow emotion added, letting her arms fall limp at her sides.

"Well we didn't know it would be _this_ bad!" Anger pointed out, gesturing toward the screen of the Mind's Eye and the multitude of memories that were now littering the floor of Headquarters, looking like he just wanted to punch something besides the console. "With all these memories being sent here and images that Riley thinks up, we can't really focus on _anything_ Outside!"

If Riley hadn't been within earshot of her parents at the time, she would have voiced her agreement with Anger. Thought after thought kept popping in her head as memory orbs came up and were projected in quick succession and at random, leading to a nonsensical mess.

 _The Mind World was fun._

 _I wish I could drive a car like the Train of Thought._

 _Wow, the Golden Gate Bridge looks like it's glowing with the way the sun's shining on it!_

 _Why doesn't it look that pretty all the time?_

 _Spellcheck is sometimes a pain._

 _That 'I before E except after C' rhyme has at least 3 exceptions._

 _How can you do a poem about your favorite color if your favorite color is orange? Doorhinge doesn't count._

 _Why are all the fish at the bottom of the ocean completely terrifying?_

"Riley?"

Riley let out a small gasp, jolted out of her thoughts as she looked away from the window. The voice hadn't been that of one of her emotions, but rather her mother, who was glancing behind her with a concerned look on her face. Not wanting to give the vibe that anything was wrong, she quickly answered. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay, sweetie? You seem more quiet than usual."

Riley shrugged, managing a smile. "Just thinking."

Mrs. Andersen placed her arm on the armrest of her seat. "Really? What about?"

"Uhhh..." Riley quickly tried to bring anything up of the myriad of thoughts popping up in her head. "Um, fish in the ocean?"

Anger facepalmed.

Disgust cringed. "Now Mom and Dad are gonna think that's weird!"

However, the exact opposite happened.

Riley's father spoke up from the front seat as their car took a turn-off to the Golden Gate Park. "You know, _I_ went on a fishing trip once when I was your age..."

"Oh _no_!" Disgust groaned. "Not a 'when I was your age' story!"

Anger slammed his head on the edge of the console in frustration.

Riley tried not to roll her eyes. With the memories and thoughts that were popping up in her head, all she could think was just wishing she was in the Mind World right now. She'd rather listen to the emotions talk about stuff _they_ did than what her dad did on a fishing trip 30 years ago.

Besides, all those fish looked mostly the same, anyway.

As more and more images appeared in Riley's head, the preteen lost in thought as her family drove by, Fear felt increasing anxiety prick at his chest. While in truth the buildings they were now driving by were accompanied by nothing but the San Francisco skyline, images of Riley's imaginings towered to join the landscape in her Mind's Eye, along with the barrage of memories her scatterbrained mind was pulling up.

When they got to the Golden Gate Park, with its landscapes and museums, the same thing happened. Where others saw carefully trimmed trees, Riley envisioned elaborate toparies of all her favorite things. Where museum paintings hung, she imagined their forms coming to life, as if she were watching a film.

The entire day went on like that. Imagining aspects of the Mind World brightening up the human world, memories popping into her head, and the emotions frantically trying to assure her that all would be well soon enough.

And as afternoon waned and the Andersens proceeded to drive home, with the sky becoming multicolored as the sun lowered, the car's silence Outside was interrupted for Riley by the voices Inside.

"Well that was mentally chaotic," Anger said, throwing his hands up in the air as his scowl deepened. "We could barely focus on anything all day!"

"And the toparies Riley thought up were better than the underwhelming ones at the gardens," Disgust added.

"I nearly got hit in the face with a memory orb three times," Sadness winced, trying to aid Joy in gathering up a few of the haphazardly strewn around memories and sending them back to Long Term.

Riley winced at hearing that. "Ow..."

Mrs. Andersen looked back at Riley, causing all the emotions to freeze. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"Y-Yeah," Riley quickly said, trying to come up with an explanation. "I, uh, just have a headache."

Which was true in more ways than one.

"Well, we'll help fix that when we get home, okay?"

Riley nodded, leaning back in her seat.

Exchanging a grin with her daughter, Mrs. Andersen turned back to the road.

"Oh, Riley," her father called from the driver's seat, "how's studying for that test tomorrow coming along?"

Riley froze. So did the emotions.

"You think you're ready for it?"

Headquarters fell silent aside from another few memories popping up. Riley's eyes were wide. And lightly closing her eyes, the 12-year-old slammed her hand lightly against her forehead.

"This is not my day."

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, seems that "consciousness tampering" had a few effects that made for a mentally scrabbled day** **. And next chapter will involve Riley and her emotions dealing with the dilimna of the big test the next day while being uncertain of the possibility of being scatterbrained! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and remember to review!**


	9. Technicalities

**A/N: Back again, everyone! So, after Riley having been scatterbrained all day, she now has a test to study for that she cam't even really focus on! So, time to see just how she'll deal with that little dilemma? Time to find out!**

 **By the way, I put up a picture of Joy's room on the Pixar wiki as a screenshot from the art book. As for that window portal thing that she can use to go to her "Happy Place" that's modeled after Belle's house from Beauty and the Beast, we'll see that later—the way I see it, it can also serve as Joy's "second sleeping spot", when she's not relaxed enough to sleep in a bathtub the whole night. ;)**

 **Also, for everyone who didn't know, someone made a TV Tropes page for the fic! Huzzah! :D Speaking of, to answer the questions on the Headscratchers page:**

 **1\. The Mind Mail: I like how someone termed it "Nerve Mail", because that's the kind of thing I see it being like. Kind of like a blend of the light bridges that link the core memories to the Islands, and the recall tubes, think of their being a sort of mail system that causes small tubes and panels to open up in the ceiling, sending the right letters to the rooms in Headquarters either by hitting the front door or going through the mail slot if they have one. There will be an instance of that later.**

 **2\. The placement of the Intercom: I did purposefully place it in an area that we don't see in the film, basically in that area right near the idea bulbs, kind of across from the lockers. Seeing as I wrote the first couple chapters before the film came out, I wanted it to be some place where it could be, but not so much where it would likely be retconned by the film itself.**

 **Disclaimer: Inside Out belongs to Pixar.**

* * *

The first thing Riley did when she got home was make sure to drink some water while her mom went over to the bathroom's medicine cabinet, a gesture that Riley appreciated as she got some orange juice from the kitchen herself.

Sitting at the kitchen table, the 12-year-old's head was pounding for a multitude of reasons, her fingers brushing her blonde hair away and massaging her head. It was bad enough that she hadn't studied near as much as she should have, having been distracted and entertained by the emotions in her head. It was worse that she had been scatterbrained all day thanks to the overhaul in Long Term. She didn't need a migraine headache making things worse!

"This is gonna be a nightmare," Riley mumbled.

"Oh Riley, it won't be so bad," Mrs. Andersen said as she returned with the medicine and a small cup of water. She put on a smile. "Just really work on studying tonight, and then tomorrow if you feel like you did a great job, we'll get some pizza to celebrate. How about that?"

"Oh, now Mom's using bribery?" Anger muttered.

Joy, however, didn't seem perturbed by it at all. "Bribery or not, it works for me!"

And clearly it worked for Riley too as she managed to smile herself, even though she was still worried about the test.

After taking the medicine and drinking her cup of orange juice, Riley glanced upstairs. As much as she wanted to just relax, she couldn't. Like it or not, she had to study.

Heading upstairs and going into her room, Riley sat on her bed for a moment. Certain by her racing thoughts and the noises of clattering memory orbs that it was chaos in her mind, she rubbed her temples in an attempt to assuage the pounding in her head. "I'm in trouble."

"Don't worry, we can do this!" Joy quickly ran over to the shelves that housed the idea bulbs, picking up the one from before for Riley to use the emotions' help to study for the test. Hurrying over to the console, she plugged the idea bulb into the outlet, and they noticed Riley's head turn up slightly as the bright idea came to her.

"I sure hope so," Riley agreed, trying to let Joy's confidence show through more in her demeanor as she gathered her Biology textbook and notebook to take downstairs. "I'll just have you guys be my study buddies for the night!"

Disgust rolled her eyes at the term.

"And hopefully that will help the whole scatterbrained thi-" Riley paused, the hand that had been opening to the right page of her Biology book to check it stopped short. "You plugged the idea bulb in, didn't you?"

"Sure did!" Joy called brightly, leaning her elbows on the console as Riley resumed gathering her notes together. "Headquarters to Riley, we are here to help you study, over!"

"'Over'?" Disgust echoed. "What is this, a military plane?"

"Well, we are on a mission!" Joy pointed out as Riley closed the book, "It's called Operation: Study Time!" She clapped her hands. "Okay, let's hope we can get memory recall to actually bring up the memories we need so we don't have to flip through the entire book! Just say what ya need, Riley, and we'll see if we can bring it up!"

"And sort it through all these other memories," Sadness pointed out as a biology memory was knocked aside to be replaced with a memory from Riley's last birthday party.

Carrying her notes and textbook downstairs, Riley couldn't help but feel a little nervous. She usually did her studying in the kitchen, and if she stayed up in her room her parents might think she was surfing the Web rather than studying.

If she was going to converse with her emotions, she'd have to be very quiet if she dared to address them.

Riley's eyes scanned the words of both the textbook and her notes, her vision slightly blurred from a lack of focus. With all these thoughts crowding her head, and having to address the emotions quietly enough for her parents not to hear, she felt like it was a struggle to even focus on a single question!

"Okay," Riley mumbled, reading the first point on her study guide and flipping through the textbook to try to find the answer, at least not feeling like she needed to whisper so her parents wouldn't overhear. "I can do this... ' _The process relating to cell division is called_ '—".

" _We are the shoes! We are the shoes!_ "

"AAHHHH!"

As Fear sent that the memory of that scary B-movie back down as fast as possible, Riley let out a frustrated groan, shaking her head a bit to try to get things back in order. In all honesty, she wasn't sure which had been worse for her concentration—the memory of Shoes of Doom or Fear screaming about it. "Okay Riley, you can do this..."

Finding the answer to the first question, she went through a few more parts of the study guide, searching for the information in the book while also calling on her emotion companions for memory recall.

"Hey, Riley," her dad said, entering the kitchen with his wife and causing Riley to stop her muttering. "You want some spaghetti? It'll be good brain food."

"Bill," Mrs. Andersen chided, rolling her eyes a little as she went over to the cabinets. "I'm not sure if I could call spaghetti strictly 'brain food'."

"Well at least it's not candy," Riley's dad muttered with a laugh.

While the spaghetti was heating up in the pot, Riley resumed studying again, but paused as a small bowl was placed in front of her, filled with nothing but strawberries.

She glanced up at her mother in confusion.

Mrs. Andersen grinned down at her. "I remember reading online that the smell of strawberries can help improve memory. Give it a try."

Feeling a bit silly, but trusting her mom's judgement, Riley picked up one of the fruits and slowly inhaled.

Disgust did as well. "I always loved that strawberry smell."

"And funnily enough," Anger said, "I think it's working."

The others looked at the Mind's Eye, then cautiously at the projection of it. The Biology memory was still there, and it seemed for the moment that the scatterbrained stuff had lessened.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Sadness said.

"But maybe it's not!" Fear exclaimed, looking relieved for once. "Maybe tonight, strawberries are our salvation!"

Riley, currently eating one of said strawberries, had to fight the urge not to laugh.

After dinner, Riley's parents had exited the kitchen, giving Riley some privacy to study. Most of the strawberries were soon gone (not thinking a blend of the tastes of strawberries and spaghetti would be too appetizing), and it seemed that the pleasing aroma did help with Riley's scatterbrained problem.

Sort of.

"See? We're doing great!" Joy said, trying to be encouraging even though each question was interrupted by at least one random memory from Long Term coming up. "Got through a bit of the study guide, the memories aren't coming in as much—"

"The strawberries have saved us!" Fear exclaimed as Riley ate the last of said strawberries.

Riley was about to be inclined to agree, only to have the memory of what she had learned in her biology class being knocked to the ground of Headquarters by a memory of Riley driving the Train of Thought. Which itself was knocked away by another memory of her watching Shoes of Doom.

Riley dug the tip of her pencil into the paper, nearly tearing a hole through it before she placed her head on the table, staring at the open book with a deadpan expression. "Ugh, who am I kidding?" she mumbled. "I'll never be able to memorize all these in time for tomorrow! The memories keep coming even with the strawberries maybe sort of helping, and if this scatterbrained thing doesn't let up, I'll be even more distracted and I'm gonna fail!"

"Riley, calm down," Joy said, trying to ease their host's worries about the next day despite the fact that the new memories appearing on the shelves were more driven by the others at this point. "We've been doing good so far! We'll find a way to—"

"How?" Riley interrupted with a touch of indignence, seeing the images of two more memories flash into her head in quick succession, almost before she had time to process them. "So the strawberries helped, but even then I'm still scatterbrained! I can't focus!" She lightly smacked the side of her head in frustration, as if hoping to dislodge those memories from her Mind's Eye and get things back on track despite the fact that they were in another dimension. "If this keeps happening then the only way I'd be able to keep my focus is to have you guys guide me through the actual test the whole time!"

Suddenly, the idea bulb plugged into the console lit up even more than when it had been plugged in, as an addition to the idea came to Riley. Perhaps she wasn't doomed to fail after all! "Wait a minute..."

Fear's eyes widened, able to sense where this could be going as Riley lifted her head. "Oh no..."

"That's it!" Despite her looming headache, and having to whisper to disguise her conversation as mumbling the questions to herself, the former frustration present in Riley's voice was lessened. "You guys can write everything down, and then give me all the answers tomorrow!"

"Wait, are you serious?" Anger asked. Sure, it seemed that that particular line of thought had been heading that way, but the fact that Riley had actually suggested what was for all intents and purposes cheating...

"The idea bulb doesn't seem to be lying," Joy pointed out, indicating how said bulb had increased in brightness.

"B-But Riley!" Fear stammered, glancing at the console, then backward to really make sure Honesty Island wasn't going on the fritz because of this. Realizing that both the core memories and the Islands outside seemed okay, he turned back to the screen once more. "That's not just asking us to help you study! That's _cheating_!"

Riley brushed some eraser markings off her paper as she flipped back to the first page of her study guide. "Well, tests are meant to show how much you remember in your head, right?"

Fear fidgeted nervously. He couldn't help but feel that Riley was stretching the morals of test-taking. "Yeah..."

None of them could see the slowly triumphant grin on Riley's face, but the smugness was there in her whispered voice all the same, overtaking the irritation and headache. "You guys are inside my head. So, it's not an outside source, therefore, not cheating!"

Fear, on the other hand, didn't have much of a higher opinion of the idea and was still expecting to hear the sound of a certain Honesty Island being damaged. However, given that said Island was still standing strong as ever, it seemed like Honesty was more in favor of Riley's opinion at this point. Then again, they weren't exactly taking the test right now either... "I can't help but feel that's stretching a loophole. We could get in trouble!"

"How?" Riley challenged.

"Mom and Dad will think it's suspicious if we suddenly get a perfect score!"

Riley paused. She said nothing in response, listening carefully at the wording. Not just because Fear had a point about the "sudden perfect score" thing, but because of a certain word he had said...

"That's how it is with adults," Anger grumbled, his part of the console lighting up with a red hue. "They want us to do great in school, then when we get a perfect score they'll suspect we're cheating! Make up your mind!"

There it was again...

"Wait, _we_?" Riley lifted her head up, her expression questioning. "What do you mean ' _we_ '? _You_ guys aren't taking the test, _I_ am."

The emotions looked at each other.

"Well, um..." Joy, unseen by Riley, looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry, kind of a force of habit."

"Force of _habit_?!" There was that almost accusatory tone in Riley's voice again, memory orbs like red-and-purple marbles clinking into the Short Term shelves. "You mean you guys say 'we' instead of 'Riley'? Like _you're_ **_me_**?"

"Not all the time!" Joy said quickly, hoping that would help Riley not be so mad.

Disgust glanced at Joy with a slight glare.

Fear's pupils shrank, noticing that the images in a few of the new memory spheres, rather than giving a clear picture of the outside world, seemed a little blurry and out of focus, not fully having their attention drawn to the outside. Joy saying those words was just about the worst thing she could have said.

Sadness spoke up, quickly trying to save face. "It's just, we could only interact with the outside world through you, so..."

Riley had to fight to whisper at that point. "Well I'm not you, and you're not me, okay?"

Anger lifted his hands from any buttons on the console, as did Fear, and the blend of irritation and caution was left to simmer in Riley's thoughts. With her unease about the test and her surprise at hearing the term "we" come from their mouths, the focus of that blend of feelings—at least, what focus Riley still had—was directed Inside as well as Outside.

Joy couldn't help but look a bit guilty. She didn't like it when Riley felt like she couldn't trust them; that could put a rip in their friendship. And if they argued, the gang in Headquarters would never be able to help her through the test! "Okay, so maybe we've made that mistake in the past—"

"Almost every day," Disgust muttered.

"—But things can be different now." Joy placed her hand on her portion of the console, hoping to offer Riley even at least a little bit of comfort. "I mean, look at us! Well, I mean, you can't literally look at us right now, but, we're talking to you!"

"And you didn't automatically push us away," Sadness added, a small smile appearing on her face. "You gave us a chance."

"Okay, fine," Riley sighed, turning to the next section of her Biology book. "If you guys don't say 'we' so much anymore when it's actually me doing things out here, then we'll be on good terms. Deal?"

"Deal," the five in Headquarters chorused.

"Good." Despite the somewhat abrupt manner in which that last word was said, the emotions, much to their relief, could sense a hint of a smile there. Sure, having people in her head was something she was still getting used to, and the "we" thing was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but they certainly seemed to have her best interests at heart. And she had been to their world, that wonderful, magical world of theirs...

They hadn't done anything _bad_ , and they were trying to help her now. Why stay bitter at them?

"Okay," Riley said, growing a bit more confident as she flipped back to the first page of her study guide. "We can do this."

"You know it, Riley!" Joy cheered.

Riley, giving a mental cheer herself, focused on her answers to the first few questions, making sure that she had got the wording on each one exactly right.

And Fear, reluctantly but at Joy's request, was writing the questions and answers verbatim.

"It's not cheating," the purple emotion was muttering, his hand shaking a little as he scribbled down everything. "It's not cheating... we're—Riley's using her head, it's not cheating..."

"Hey, you know we can all hear you!" Anger snapped backward.

Fear flinched a little, but resumed writing. "Sorry."

And as Riley worked with her emotions late into the night, double and triple-checking everything to make sure they were prepared (thanks to writing everything down, Riley even bothered to read the picture captions this time), the 12-year-old had hope that maybe she could ace this thing after all.

* * *

"Okay, here we go!" Joy exclaimed, trying to give an internal pep talk to their host. "Got all the notes down, we're gonna go in there, ace that test—"

"In a way that's totally cheating," Fear added, still feeling antsy about the whole thing despite having all the questions and answers stacked next to him in a pile.

"It's not cheating," Riley whispered. "It's just using my head like everyone else does."

Disgust shook her head. "Yeah, I don't think everyone else happens to talk to their emotions thanks to someone breaking the intercom."

Riley heard grumbling from Anger in response.

"You guys get what I mean," Riley whispered. "I just—"

"Hey, Riley!"

Riley stopped, suddenly realizing that one of her friends was trying to get her attention. She turned and saw a girl with dark brown hair, a black shirt, and part of the right side of her hair was dyed.

"Hi Ann!" Riley's eyes widened. "Woah, you decided to change your dye?"

"Yup!" Ann grinned, brushing a bit of her dyed hair in front of her face. "After having it blue since last year I decided to try fuchsia. You like it?"

Inside the Mind World, Disgust was looking at Ann's new hair color with an expression of approval. "I don't know about you guys, but I like her new look."

"It makes her look a lot more cheery," Joy said.

"And it matches my scarf!" Disgust added, glancing at her own hair for a moment, as if considering dyeing it that partial color herself. Whoever heard of pink broccoli?

"Yeah," Riley said with a light laugh, liking Ann's new hairstyle herself. "It matches Disgust's scarf, she likes it too—"

Ann's expression switched from happiness to uncertainty. She arched her brow, her confusion clear on her face as she glanced around. "Who's Disgust?"

All five of the emotions froze.

So did Riley.

"AH!" Fear cried. "Why did you say that?!"

Of course, Riley couldn't sheepishly answer her emotion friend, but she felt heat rise to her cheeks at the same. But she had to say something... "N-Never mind."

"Aw come on, you've got me curious!" Ann said, curiosity joining her confusion. "Is Disgust a nickname of another friend or something?"

 _Think, Riley, think!_

And it was the that possibly the only good thing about this whole scatterbrained thing happened as another memory came up. A memory of what the lesson plan for her Introduction to Psychology class had said would be coming up.

"Uh, I'm practicing for the section in Intro to Psychology about Memory and Emotion!"

"Huh?"

Inside, Joy was beaming with relief. "Nice save, Riley!"

"What do you mean 'nice save'?!" Fear exclaimed, whirling to face Joy with the exact opposite expression. "She's telling Ann about us!"

"I think Riley knows what she's doing," Sadness pointed out, noticing how Ann looked a bit more understanding.

Realizing that Ann wasn't looking at her like she thought she was crazy, Riley kept going. "Yeah, see, I was thinking that maybe personifying my emotions would help me understand the class better. Like little people in my mind!"

The five emotions stayed still, waiting tensely. Depending how Ann took this explanation, this could either be really good or really bad.

Fortunately for them, Ann smiled a little. "Huh, might not be a bad idea." She continued walking, gesturing for Riley to follow as they walked into the building together. "Maybe you ought to bring that up in class. Mr. O'Brian might give you extra credit!"

"What do ya know," Anger said. "Ann took that well."

"Extra credit means more chances to not fail," Sadness added. "Maybe it will make up for getting a C on the last test..."

"The test!" Fear exclaimed, coming out of his "Riley's mentioning us" worry and practically leaping at the console. "If we don't get in there soon we'll have less 'study before classes start time! And Biology's right after lunch!"

The smile on Riley's face at how well the conversation was going vanished.

"What's wrong, Riley?"

Riley resisted the urge to facepalm, her nerves coming back in full force. "The Biology test."

Ann cringed. "You nervous too?"

"Yeah," Riley admitted. "I forgot to study until last night."

"Ouch." The dark haired girl couldn't help but wince in sympathy. "Well, hopefully Fear calms down a bit."

Riley nearly stopped short, looking at Ann in surprise.

Ann just smiled. "Just trying out that 'emotion personification' thing myself." She looked a bit thoughtful. "It's kinda cool."

Despite her anxiety about the test, Riley couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

 **A/N: Loopholes, they tend to help—not cheating if it's in your mind, right? XD A little bit of tension between Riley and the emotions here, but we'll see how that goes. Also, I named the cool girl from the film Ann because that was the first name of a Parks and Recreation character (a show that Amy Pohler is most known for) played by her emotions' voice actress at the end of the film, so I just rolled with it—admittedly I thought Ann was the first name of the voice actress because I didn't look on the Pixar wiki and instead didn't investigate the "Hey It's That Voice" section by properly clicking, oops. So, next chapter we'll see how Riley does with that test, and a little bit more antics during the day as well! Hope you enjoyed and remember to review! And thanks to Heitomos for editing!**


	10. Fractured Honesty

**A/N: 9 chapters in and already 400 reviews exactly?! When I started this I thought I'd be lucky enough to get 100 total! Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed so far!**

 **Speaking of reviews, and I see there was a bit of a controversial divide between the sides that think Riley's not really cheating and those who say she is. Which many pointed out comes to the debate concerning the use of "we" and whether the emotions are really in essence Riley.**

 **I expected precisely that. In fact, to be honest, I wrote the chapter _hoping for_ such debate and discussion.**

 **Concerning the relationship between Riley and her emotions, Ronnie del Carmen, one of the co-directors of Inside Out, had this to say in the article "40 Things We Learned About Pixar's Inside Out":**

 **" _In the beginning, one question was "aren't Riley's emotions her?" But in keeping with that concept of emotions as guiding forces, you are not your emotions — you can choose what to act on, at least in some cases, while for some people emotional guidance may be more overt._ " **

**So there you go. The emotions are much more guardians than controllers, and they aren't really Riley herself—they guide responses, but it's Riley who chooses what emotional responses to act on.**

 **With that in mind, do I consider it cheating? Well, seeing as the emotions can now directly tell her the answers, rather than just guide responses to sometimes-flawed memories (sometimes our memories aren't as clear as we could like them to be, hence why everyone in the IO-verse doesn't ace every test) it is in a way cheating since she has direct answer-giving help, even though it is technically from an inside source. But cheating or not, let's see how Riley herself deals with it, shall we? And, for that matter, how Ann's emotions deal with what just happened. ;)**

 **Also, to quickly answer Eric the Loony's question about why all of them get _The Mind Reader_ if only Anger reads it—mostly everyone gets standard mail, Anger is just the only one who likes to read the paper.**

 **With that said, on we go!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _Inside Out_.**

* * *

"See guys?" Joy said, giving one of the console's levers a spin. "That worked out!"

"I wouldn't say that," Sadness frowned. "I can't help but think about Ann's emotions. Riley probably scared them."

Fear's limbs stiffened, some of the papers with the test questions and answers crinkling in his grip. "AH, you're right! I was so busy freaking out about Riley accidentally mentioning _us_ that—!" Fear slid his hands down the sides of his face. "Ohhhhh I feel _so_ bad for Ann's Fear right now!"

Riley winced. She hadn't even thought about the fact that Ann's emotions were probably much more shocked at the mention than her own had been. "Sorry..."

"Sorry for what?" Ann turned and looked at Riley with a questioning expression.

Riley tried not to freeze too conspicuously. She could hear Fear pleading her to watch what she said, and knew she had to think quickly here. She couldn't let Ann think she was crazy, or have her emotions go into a freakout and potentially further that conviction...

"For, uh, saying that emotion thing and probably having you think I was crazy." Riley managed a smile, hoping that it would be a sufficient coverup and not seem too forced.

After a second, one in which Ann looked a bit confused and maybe even nervous, she smiled as well. "It's okay."

As they continued to walk to homeroom, Riley made sure to watch what she said. Be careful, don't let anything slip up, save it for Psychology class...

"Told you guys!" Joy said, turning to the others with a relieved look. "That wasn't so bad!"

"'Wasn't so bad'? That slip up might of just made Ann's Fear faint," Disgust pointed out, looking concerned, which consequently caused Fear to look even more horrified.

"Oh, I'm sure Ann's emotions are taking it okay," Joy assured, still keeping up her cheery attitude even though she was sure it likely came as a pretty big shock.

"I don't know," Sadness admitted. "Ann looked kind of nervous just now..."

"I'm pretty sure her Fear reached for the console at _least_ once before Joy pulled him or her away," Anger added, recalling Ann's change in expression.

Despite the debate going on, Joy tried to force a grin of her own. Surely Ann's emotions couldn't be freaking out _too_ badly. "They're probably just thinking it's all metaphor and not freaking out at all."

* * *

Inside Ann's head, one emotion was screaming her head off.

"I'M FREAKING OUT!"

"Woah, woah, Fear, calm down!" Ann's Joy had to practically chase after her frantic companion, who had wrestled her way out of the other's grasp a bit earlier and was running around like a bug trying to escape being squashed by an impending shoe. At least Fear wasn't slamming her hands on the console anymore like she had initially done when Riley first mentioned _her_ Disgust before Joy and Disgust had quickly pulled her away.

"HOW can I calm down, Joy?!" Ann's Fear screamed, finally stopping to shake her friend frantically as one eye twitched. "Riley mentioned us! Riley knows, RILEY _KNOWS_! Humans are NOT supposed to know! There has to be a clause in the manuals about it!"

"Calm down there," Ann's Disgust said with an exasperated shake of her head, feeling surprised as well but convinced herself that Fear was just overreacting. "Obviously Riley was just speaking personification-wise. It makes sense considering Intro to Psych's next subject. That doesn't mean she knows about the Mind World."

"B-But... but..." Ann's Fear's stammering had her mouth gaping open almost like a fish.

"Look," Ann's Anger said, turning to her purple companion with a deadpan expression, noticing that the latter was still skittering like she wanted to hide under something and pray this was all a bad dream. "If she started talking about Headquarters and Personality Islands, _then_ we'd have reason to worry. But she just talked about emotions being personified as people, that's it! It's not like we haven't seen that in cartoons and such!"

"They're right, Fear," said Ann's Sadness, managing to grab the purple emotion's hand to try to stop her running around. "It's innocent metaphor."

Ann's Fear still looked unsure, but at least she wasn't running around screaming anymore. She still looked like she was completely panicking on the inside, but at least having one of her fellow emotions grab her hand had grounded her back a bit to the present moment.

"Everything's fine," Ann's Joy said, giving the nerve-shaped emotion a pat on the back (which caused Fear to jump a little) and guiding her back over to her place at the console. "We'll just get through the rest of the day, have lunch, and then go through that test. Everything's gonna be fine."

Ann's Fear, fingers trembling over the console, still couldn't say she was really consoled by this. She made a note to keep a particular eye on Riley for a little while. "Maybe Riley got Mind-World-reading powers," she murmured.

The brick-shaped emotion at her left groaned and facepalmed.

* * *

Riley, rather than feeling more confident as the test approached, only ended up feeling more and more nervous and guilty. While Joy, Anger, and Disgust went along with Riley's conviction that this was in fact a perfectly legitimate method of taking the test, Fear and Sadness brought doubt.

Thankfully for Riley, Homeroom (which was English this year) wasn't punctuated by too many distractions. The emotions only spoke when they felt they really needed to say something, and at least the scatterbrained aspect wasn't happening quite as severely as yesterday.

"Guys, we really, _really_ shouldn't be doing this!" Fear fretted, clutching the "cheat sheets" and glancing at the words every so often. "I don't care what you guys say, it's still cheating!"

"If you want to give us a lecture," Anger grumbled, "then don't annoy us about it when it's not even close to Biology! At least have decency to not bother Riley about it!"

"Thank you, Anger," Riley managed to whisper as she wrote down some notes for the day while her emotions tried to recall as many memories of the test information that they could.

Seeing as Riley couldn't mumble to her five little voices during class, she snuck in some quiet conversation time between classes. But that was still difficult even with the scatterbrained matter being lessened. Part of her mind was conjuring up images, unable to help but fill the beige hallways of the school with more fantastical aspects.

For instance, the lockers. Every one was the same height, regardless of how tall the student was, aside from having different areas for each grade. If only lockers could be tailor-made to correspond to each person's height exactly, just like the emotions' were in Headquarters.

But this wasn't the Mind World. This was the human world. The world that operated on much stricter laws of reality, and where lockers couldn't just change size on a whim. And as Riley took her eyes off the lockers and focused more on her fellow students, she couldn't help but imagine what the Mind Worlds might be like inside their own heads.

Did their emotions look like Riley's, or were they different? Did their Headquarters look like hers? What kind of Islands of Personality did they have?

Curious at seeing the mental imaginings of Riley's thought processes, some lockers imagined as being different sizes and what the Mind Worlds of others might be like, the yellow emotion glanced backward from the console, glimpsing the core memory holder and the Islands of Personality.

Looking back at the Mind's Eye for a moment, Joy stepped away from the console.

"Hey, Joy?" Fear called. "What are you doing?"

"Just a second!" Joy called. "I'm seeing how Possibility Island is doing!"

The core memories were as bright as ever, including the newest white one. And Possibility Island had the memory shelf constructs on it sending the memories around and around like a looping conveyer belt.

"Possibility Island's working hard over here!" Joy called, hurrying back.

Fear gulped. "Like, 'bad' hard?"

"Just a lot of imaginings going on," Joy corrected, trying to assure Fear that there was nothing to worry about as she took her place at the console.

"You're telling me," Anger said, pointing at Riley's mental images of the other Mind Worlds that her fellow students possessed. They almost couldn't see the features of the regular human world as a result, only occasionally interrupted by a wayward memory.

Fear, placing the papers for the test on the edge of the console, frantically tried to call up a memory from Long Term. "Riley!" he exclaimed. "We can't focus on imagining others—"

"You said 'we' again," Riley muttered, shutting her eyes for a moment and frowning.

Anger glared at Fear, the console slightly red in response. "Way to go, genius."

"Sorry," Fear whispered timidly, guilt crossing his face as he watched a red sphere join the day's others on the shelves. He quickly tried to compose himself as the recalled Biology memory he had asked for came up. "Sorry, just, remember the test!"

Riley quickly shook her head out of her imaginings, the varying-sized lockers and the mental worlds in her Mind's Eye vanishing, replaced by the sights that everyone around her could see. She could save visualization for another time. _The test. Right._

Trying to hold the knowledge from her test to memory for the time being, Riley decided to ask something that hopefully would take Fear's mind a bit off the "cheating" thing. "Hey, if you guys are in my head recalling memories all the time, how come there's been some tests I nearly failed?"

"Like that Psychology one," Sadness couldn't help but pipe up, as said memory was brought up from Long Term and projected onto the Mind's Eye. Or rather, the moment that the C-graded test was handed to Riley. A blend of anger at the fact that she hadn't remembered everything like she thought she would, and sadness that she hadn't done as well as she had hoped.

Which had been followed that day by a fearful memory of the worry that she'd get scolded by Mom and Dad.

Riley cringed a little at the memory. "Which is why I don't want that happening again. So why haven't I remembered things perfectly before?"

It was Joy who answered, trying to take her own mind off of Possibility Island running and focus on being there for Riley. "Sometimes memories get a little faded, and they don't stick in your mind as much as other ones do. Then those parts of a memory have part of the picture blurred or faded or something, or the sound's a bit off."

Riley arched her brow. "Kind of like when I remember a song or quote but I can't remember what the song or quote is from?"

Joy snapped her fingers. "Bingo!"

"So even memory orbs aren't perfect," Sadness said thoughtfully. "That's kind of sad..."

Riley felt a bit melancholy at hearing that. Even objects as wonderful and perfect-seeming as memory orbs could lie. Perhaps 'lie' was too strong a word, but at least be flawed, not recalling things exactly as they happened.

But if anything, this only strengthened Riley's determination. "Which is why with your guys' help, I'm not gonna have that problem anymore."

"Yeah!" Joy exclaimed, unable to stop grinning as the sad memory orb that had clinked into Headquarters was now joined by a happier one.

"We'll show those memories who's boss here!" Anger added. "And those test questions!"

Joy's fingers were practically flying over the console. "And then you'll ace your test, get good grades for the rest of your school time, and you'll be set for life!"

Fear and Sadness looked at one another. They both had a feeling this wasn't going to end too well.

* * *

With encouragement from the other emotions (particularly Joy), Riley was feeling more confident as the test approached. She literally had the answers right there with her.

She managed to get through her classes without much trouble. English. Math. History. So far so good. Sure, there were still a few moments of being scatterbrained, but at least the onslaught of memories coming on was a lot less than before. Almost gone, really.

When Lunch eventually rolled around, Riley could't help but feel relieved. No more schoolwork for the time being. Just a nice leisurely lunch to take her mind off things. And then the test.

She couldn't help but smile as she opened up her lunch box. While there was a ham-and-cheese sandwich, an orange juice bottle, and some grapes, the most prominent thing was a bag of strawberries—that had been her mom's idea.

"These strawberries should definitely help," Riley said, opening the bag and picking up one of the red fruits, sniffing it. "Scatterbrained thing being held back, you guys helping me, I got this."

"But Riley—"

"Fear, it'll be fine—"

"Who are you talking to?"

Riley's head shot up, dropping the strawberry she had been about to put in her mouth. She noticed two of her friends sit down across from her, Ann and a curly-haired boy named Jordan. It was the latter who had spoken, adjusting his baseball cap so the brim wasn't over his eyes before staring at her with a similar curious expression on his face. "Who's Fear?"

"Uhh..."

"She's trying out personifying her emotions for Psych class," Ann said, coming to Riley's rescue. "She must be trying to stop Fear from having her be so nervous about the test."

Jordan just stared. The expression on his face looking like something akin to shock.

* * *

"FEAR!" Jordan's Anger exclaimed, though looking a bit freaked out himself. "C-Calm down!"

"I CAN'T!" screamed Jordan's Fear, his fingers firmly gripping the edge of the console even as Joy tried to pull him off, having about as much success as getting gum off a desk. "Riley knows!" Stretching a hand out, he managed to reach over and slam a button on the console, causing a red light to flash all around them. "RED ALERT! RED ALERT!"

"You try to 'Red Alert' too much!" Jordan's Sadness said, though she herself didn't look too certain about this either. "It's probably just a metaphor..."

"But what if it's not?!" cried the purple emotion. "We'll need to install specific alarms every time Riley figures something out!"

"We don't know that she's knows anything about us!" Jordan's Disgust argued, trying to keep composure though he was starting to think Fear might have the right idea. "Metaphors are used all the time!"

Jordan's Joy tried to reach for the lever to disable the Red Alert. "E-Everyone, calm down," he said, looking a bit more at ease as the blaring alarm and red light switched off. "Let's just see what Riley says."

* * *

"Hello, Earth to Jordan?" Ann said, staring at the boy next to her and waving her hand in front of his face. "Are you in there? Did your emotions drag you in?"

"SHE KNOWS TOO!" the Fear inside his head screamed before the others pushed him away and gave him a few scoldings of "Calm down!" and "Metaphor!". Jordan blinked a few times. "Oh, uh, sorry. I was just thinking... that's a bit out there."

"Well, yeah, I know, but..." Riley smiled, trying to be as much at ease as she possibly could. "It's interesting to think about... right?"

"Yeah, it is..." Despite Jordan's agreement, he seemed to have other things on his mind. Like the possibility of having living emotions in his head scared him.

Ann shook her head. "What's with everyone being so spacey today? Test nerves?"

Jordan managed to shake himself out of his thoughts and nodded. "Yeah. Had a Spanish test earlier today and then Intro to Bio next."

"Two tests in a day?" Riley asked, her eyes widening as she pulled out her sandwich.

"Yeah, it's one of those days..."

It was then that in Riley's head, Joy's face suddenly lit up. "Oh, Riley!" she exclaimed, unplugging the idea bulb to use the emotions to study and switching it out for a new one. "Great idea bulb incoming!"

Riley couldn't ask what it was, but as the idea bulb was plugged in, she had to admit it was a good idea. A great one actually. "Hey," she offered to her friends, picking up her books by her side and pulling out her Biology notebook and textbook. "How about we have a lunch time study group?"

Ann and Jordan looked at her for a moment.

"I like that idea," Ann said, smiling.

"Me too," Jordan added, leaning over to get his book as well and nearly having his hat fall off his head. "After that Spanish test part of the Biology stuff left my brain."

"Well, good time to get it back in there, huh?" Riley said with a slight laugh. "Idea bulbs sure come in handy."

"What?"

The word came simultaneously from Jordan and Ann. Both of them stared at her.

And Riley's emotions in her head stood frozen.

At least until Fear screamed. "NOOO!"

And the other sets of emotions weren't taking it too well either.

* * *

Ann's Fear looked as if she had been petrified. The other emotions looked at her a bit uncertainly. She wasn't reaching for the console, she wasn't running around screaming her head off. She just stood there like a statue.

"Fear?" Ann's Joy coughed. "Um, Fe—"

"RILEY KNOWS!" Ann's Fear cried, suddenly leaping up as if she had been hit with jolts of electricity. "SHE KNOWS! EVERYONE STAY STILL!"

"Okay, okay, just calm down," Joy said, trying to gesture to their own idea bulb shelves. "Ever heard the phrase 'bright idea'? That's all she means, it's another metaphor."

"If she mentions memory orbs or Personality Islands," added Ann's Anger, " _then_ we can panic. For now, we're still safe, okay?"

"Okay... okay..." Ann's Fear was breathing heavily, managing to fight the urge to grab the console.

Ann's Sadness frowned. "... You want me to get you a bag?"

The purple emotion gave a weak nod.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Jordan's head, things weren't faring much better.

"RED ALERT!" his Fear screamed, pounding on the button as if pressing it more times would emphasize how serious this was. "RED ALERT!"

"She knows!" Jordan's Disgust fretted. "How could she know?!"

Jordan's Anger seemed to be one of the few who was keeping a reasonably level head. He hurried over to the idea bulb shelves and picked up a random bulb holding it up. "For the love of Pete, IT'S A COMMON EXPRESSION!" he hollered.

The volume of Anger's voice caught the attention of the rest of Jordan's emotions to look at him. Mostly responding with blinking stares.

" _Thank_ you."

The arms of Jordan's Joy fell limp at his sides. "Anger's right," he said, hurrying toward the console. "Let's just all calm down and not panic, and Jordan can interact with Riley and Ann with no problem..."

* * *

Riley noticed the expressions on her friends' faces and quickly tried to make a recovery. "Uh, you know, I meant like how in cartoons when someone gets an idea and then a light bulb lights up above their head? You get moments like that too, right?"

Ann looked more relaxed now. "All the time."

"You should bring that stuff up in Psychology," Jordan said. "I think that will definitely boost your grade up!"

"But we can talk about that later," Ann said, opening her book to the first page of the section. "Let's try to get this study thing going before the Bio Test of Doom gets here."

Riley eagerly agreed on that. The feeling that she was going to ace the test gave her a more determined drive to help her friends as well.

* * *

As Riley journeyed with her friends to where their Biology test would be taken, the idea bulb to use her emotions was firmly plugged in again. It was just an idea, of course, and she could choose not to act on it.

But she wanted to. She knew she had to if she wanted to do really well on it.

"Riley," Fear pleaded as she entered the room, taking her seat. "I-It's cheating if you do this!"

"It might hurt Honestly Island," Sadness added. "And your conscience."

The teacher, a slightly tan-skinned woman with long black hair named Ms. Karol was going around the room, passing out the test to each student as they sat down. It didn't take long before she got to Riley. But just before the test was placed on her desk, Riley cast her gaze up near her head.

"I want to pass this."

It was a whisper, but it was strong enough for the emotions to hear.

Riley bit her bottom lip as the teacher handed out the test. She could feel her heart race, unable to help feeling a sudden anxiety joining her determination that she could get a perfect score.

"Guys?" Fear asked, one hand at the console and the other hand clutching the papers to his chest. "We can't just let Riley do this! RILEY! DON'T DO THIS!"

Riley just shut her eyes for a moment and fought the urge to scowl. She wished she could just tell Fear not to shout like that.

Fortunately, Anger already had that covered. "Shut it, string bean! Do you _want_ her to fail the test?" he snapped, trying to push the frantic nerve away from the console. "Your influence isn't exactly helping Riley's test performance!"

Riley rubbed the front of her head, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. The reconstruction of Long Term seemed almost done (if not done already), the strawberries were helping and, most importantly, she had her emotions there to guide her through all the answers.

 _You can do this, Riley,_ she told herself. _You have Joy and the others to help you. The six of us together can ace this easily!_

But another niggling thought sprung in her head for an instant as she sensed Fear's presence.

 _Six of us when it should only really be one._

Riley opened her eyes as she heard the swish of paper being placed on her desk, glancing down at it. A four-page packet similar to the study guide. Some of the questions were in a different order, but Riley recognized the wording from the study guide.

"' _The process by which cell division'_ —"

"That's mitosis!" Joy called. "I remembered that without even looking at the paper!"

"Way to go, Joy," Anger said, "maybe _you_ ought to go out there and take the test, I think that will satisfy Fear's cheating worries."

Fear flinched a little at the glare he received from the red emotion.

Riley's hands were shaking a little as she read the next question. "' _A scientist testing the affects of a chemical on apple yeild sprays an orchard with the chemical. A second_ '—"

"Ugh, it's one of those 'What is the independent variable?' questions!" Disgust groaned. "I hate those, especially multiple choice!"

"Luckily we don't have to worry about that," Anger said, looking at Fear. "Fear, what is it?"

The purple emotion flipped through the papers, his eyes darting as he searched for the answer. "The chemical."

 _Yes!_ Riley thought triumphantly as she filled in that answer. _This is working!_

Riley went through question after question, writing down the answers with ease. Even if Fear had to be coaxed sometimes into giving the answers.

"So far so good!" Disgust said, glancing a little at the idea bulb shining brightly before facing the screen once again. "Great idea you had there, Riley. No ugly red F is going to grace this test paper!"

"See?" Joy said, grinning and feeling more confident. "We're giving Riley the answers, she'll ace it, everything's gonna be—"

Joy paused, the rest of her sentence abruptly dying. Riley couldn't just ask why Joy had stopped talking, but she had a strong feeling it wasn't good as she paused in her writing.

The other emotions didn't need to ask. They had all heard what prompted Joy to stop talking.

A rumbling sound from outside Headquarters.

Fear screamed, racing toward the windows overlooking the islands. His jaw dropped as his own fears were realized.

"G-Guys!" he called, "Honesty Island isn't taking this too well!"

Indeed, the building at the apex of the Island's mountain, the Temple of Truth, was beginning to have fractures form in its structure, and Fear worried that the beams would topple and be sent tumbling down the hill.

And this was just a few small cracks. Sure, the core memory being there would very likely keep the Island intact, but none of them could deny that, like it or not, the island was being affected. A part of Riley's mind still interpreted the action as being dishonest and deceitful.

Core memory aside, who knew what would happen if Riley went through the entire test like this!

Riley's pencil paused mid-writing, her eyes widening a little. There were only three questions left on the test and all three were some of the harder word problems. She may not have heard the rumbling, but she had heard Fear's shout loud and clear.

Honesty Island was being damaged because of her actions. Her own mind was hurting because of this.

Even before Fear had scurried back to the console, another feeling rose in Riley's mind thanks to Sadness.

Guilt.

Which was soon strengthened further by Fear as said purple emotion was nearly screaming for Riley to stop. And the 12-year-old's thoughts were sent into a whirlwind.

 _I shouldn't be doing this!_ Riley thought to herself. _I'm not using legitimate memories this way, even if they are flawed! Inside help or not, my emotions aren't my memories! They aren't **me**! Fear's right, it's still cheating!_

Her grip on the pencil clenched, her nails nearly digging into her skin as her moral code was being pulled in two different directions. She couldn't just try to get out of it by starting over and getting most of the answers wrong on purpose, trying to just rely on her sometimes-faulty memories themselves—she'd get in heaps of trouble for that, and she didn't want to bring her Biology grade down further. Besides, the core memory that powered Honesty Island was still there, it would be fine... right?

Maybe she could use those cheat sheets in her mind to get a _majority_ of the answers. If she got these last three semi-right, then it would be enough to get a B plus, even an A minus. Relying on her memories more than just having the answers handed to her on a silver platter whose waiter was practically jumping out of his skin with every word she wrote.

That would fix Honesty Island, right? It had to...

Riley stared down at the paper, her vision out of focus as her mind felt at war with itself, Honesty verses her conscious action. The guilt was pricking at her conscience. And she knew that if she continued using her emotions like this, one "perfect" test would turn into another. Sure, she'd get perfect scores, but at what cost?

Honesty Island breaking more, for one...

So for the very last question, she fudged some of the answer. Made it seem like a believable answer that she could get some points on, but the ultimate answer still being wrong to some extent. But she'd get a good number of points for her lines of reasoning.

It was a compromise.

As the test was taken from her like all the others as the class reached its end, Riley smiled, a surge of pride filling her. She had bypassed the faultiness of scatterbrained and imperfect memories and gotten almost all the answers right. She aced that test no problem!

"See, Riley?" Joy exclaimed. "So you changed some of the answers at the end, but you did it, you aced it!"

Riley couldn't deny that she felt proud of that. She felt happy. If she aced the test like that, she could ace all of them!

But she didn't notice another pillar of the Temple of Truth begin to crack.

... And that feeling of elated happiness lasted for about 33 seconds.

It sank in for Riley what she had done as she placed her head on her desk and squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing her temples. She'd get almost all the questions right. She knew she'd pass and get an A. But did she really _deserve_ it?

She hadn't relied just on the recall of memory orbs. She had relied on what was essentially like a radio in her head giving her all the answers.

The smile slowly faced from her face.

The moment the bell to go to the next class rang, Riley quickly gathered her books and left, less hearing what the teacher said as farewell words and more the echoing clink of memory orbs. She couldn't see them, but her emotions could. A mix of blends of all of the emotions, the orbs coming through almost like a burst of rushing water.

Joy that she knew she aced the test.

Sadness and Anger for having been dishonest.

Fear and Sadness for her guilt.

Disgust and Anger that she had done such a thing.

And she could tell that Honesty Island would be a little less perfect next time she went to the Mind World. Unless it was repaired the next time she went there.

Joy only let herself get a little input into the console. As she had learned with Sadness especially, in particularly strong moments an emotion was compelled to work the console however they thought their host needed it.

And right now the others were having more reign.

"So," Ann said, catching up with her with Jordan joining soon after. "How'd you guys think the test went? I'm pretty sure I got at least a B."

"I think I did okay," Jordan admitted. "I'm pretty sure I got about three-fourths of the answers right... I think..." He looked sheepish. "75% is passing..."

Ann rolled her eyes. "Teachers really should just schedule one test for each student a day." She then glanced over at Riley. "How about you, Riley?"

Riley tried to force a smile. "Good! I, uh, think I aced it."

Jordan's jaw dropped. "No way! You feel like you _aced_ it?"

Ann's eyes widened. "Wow, you must have studied like crazy since you didn't study until last night!"

"I-I was just a bit frantic and really wanted to do well," Riley said, waving it off.

"Now I kinda want to know your method," Ann admitted. "We really ought to do a group study session for this."

"Y-Yeah..."

Riley tried to relax her expression as she walked to her Intro to Psychology class, trying to ignore the twinge of guilt that still ached at her chest.

Maybe the rest of the day would turn out better.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, seems like Riley's guilt about cheating came a bit into play here, and Honesty Island got a bit of damage to it—guilt can be a powerful thing. And I couldn't resist including the stuff with Ann's and Jordan's emotions! Next chapter, we'll see if Riley proposes her little emotion "idea" and see how that's seen in the eyes of her classmates. Hope you enjoyed and remember to review!**


	11. Dangers of an Open Mind

**A/N: Back for the next chapter! Yes, I do read the pages on TV Tropes, so, time to quickly address those points on the Fridge page!**

 **1\. The Idea Bulb - You know how sometimes you get an initial idea, and then later you get another idea that stems from that one? The brightening of the idea bulb was to allude to Riley coming up with that idea on her own, but it was initially jumpstarted by that idea bulb getting initially plugged in.**

 **2\. Why panic about humans knowing if it's like that for everyone? It's actually more of a fear of causing potential mental trauma to their host, especially concerning the whole "free will crisis" that Riley herself has had. This part will be explored more here.**

 **Also, in my view this takes place after the short "Riley's First Date?" hence why she and Jordan are good friends now. As for if the Puberty button happens to be pressed for Riley at the end of that... well, for this fic's purposes we can imagine it didn't really make any immediate changes... yet.**

 **And a final point, flarn2006 posted a really detailed review of last chapter in a Google Doc, particularly referring to the whole thing involving Riley's manner of cheating. So I'm putting it here so you all can read it: bit DOT ly/1NLo03c. Just delete the spaces and replace the DOT with a period and you should see it. :)**

 **Onward to Psych class we go!  
**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own Inside Out.**

* * *

Riley swallowed, wringing her hands together and understandably nervous. The mix of emotions were still swirling around in her mind, the five beings in her head giving their own input both verbally and metaphysically. The further away she got from the classroom, the worse she felt.

She had cheated. She had cheated and knew it was wrong and she did it anyway. She could have gone back and changed more of the answers, or just done the right thing and relied on her own memories without being told the answers by the little voices in her head, but no. She _had_ to directly get the answers just so she could get a near-perfect score. And damage the Temple of Truth on Honesty Island in the process.

The joyful memory orbs that came in were mixed with the other colors as well, unease beginning to overtake her joy. Fear had been right all along. "You were right, Fear," she mumbled. "I shouldn't have—"

"Huh?"

Riley looked up, noticing Ann staring at her in confusion.

Riley could hear her own heart pounding in her chest as she realized she had nearly just blurted out her confession of cheating. Right in front of her friends!

"I gotta go to my locker to put my books away," Riley said quickly, not making eye contact with her friends. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up."

"Okay," Ann said, giving a small wave as Riley hurried off. "See you there, Riley!"

As she went to her locker, Riley could hear her heartbeat as she placed the books for her morning classes into the locker and retrieved her afternoon work. She frowned a little at the Intro to Psychology textbook, thinking about what was to come and honestly not sure how she'd handle it.

And of course, the thought that she had cheated kept circling back in her mind.

"Well, that could have gone better," Anger grumbled, flicking to the second page of _The Mind Reader_ as the front headline had changed minutes before: " **BAD IDEA!** **Honesty Island Damaged.** "

"Oh I knew we shouldn't have cheated!" Fear cried.

"You moaning about it isn't gonna make it any better!" Anger snapped.

In a whisper and through gritted teeth, Riley hissed at her emotions. "Stop. Saying. We."

The five inside her head went silent.

Hearing nothing from them, Riley spoke again, part of the console still red and blue. "The idea bulb's still there, right?"

"Yeah," Joy said, trying to sound cheerful but admittedly feeling on edge at Riley's not-too-happy tone. She reached for a button on the console to try to help Riley feel a bit better, but their host's next words stopped her.

"Unplug it. Get it out of my head. Now."

The harshness with which Riley said those words caught the emotions a bit off-guard, especially Joy. "A-Are you sure—?"

"Yes. I. Am. Sure," Riley said, her fingers firmly pressing the cover of her textbook.

Looking a bit hurt, but also understanding, Joy went over to the side of the console and removed the idea bulb. Its light fading as it was switched off, the golden emotion stayed silent as she went over to place the idea bulb back with the others. Turning the idea over in her hands, Joy placed the bulb back on the shelf with a sigh before tilting her head around, to where the intercom was behind the idea bulbs.

Being so close to it now, before heading back over to the console, Joy listened carefully. She could hear even Riley's softest whispers rather clearly.

"How could I do that? _"_ the blonde was muttering to herself. "How could I? _"_

Hearing that, Joy took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she moved over toward the window overlooking the islands. The Temple of Truth was no longer being damaged, but the cracks were clear.

All she had wanted was to help ease Riley's worries. She hadn't meant to contribute in some way to her feeling so terrible, or to have guilt consume her the way it had.

The yellow emotion knew that she could have just tweaked a few levers to try to keep Riley happy about it, but that wouldn't be right for her.

Hanging her head slightly in resignation, she made her way back over to the console. It was more blue now, and she could hear the others trying to whisper words of comfort and apology.

Taking her own place back at the console, but not pushing any buttons or levers, Joy voiced an apology of her own. "Sorry, Riley... I just wanted to help you."

"... I know. But _I_ went through with acting on the idea."

Riley's tone wasn't bitter, or angry toward the group. Just regretful toward her own action. She shut her locker and walked to her next class, neither her nor her emotions saying a word.

* * *

Riley took her seat in the middle of the classroom, Ann sitting next to her on her right. While her teacher, a tall man with scruffy black hair, pale skin, and glasses named Mr. O'Brian, wrote down part of the day's lesson plan on the board, Riley couldn't help but glance at the posters present around the room. Basic psychology terms, a model of the brain, even a small poster about how memory worked.

Joy rest her elbows on the console, chuckling to herself as she noticed Riley's gaze rest on the poster. A white-colored memory was recalled, Riley holding the core memory that she created. "Seems kinda silly now, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Riley said quietly, surprising herself by managing to even laugh a little. "Yeah, it does..."

Memory was so much more than just abstract patterns to her now.

The emotions looked over at the shelves of short term memories, feeling a bit of relief as a golden-colored memory rolled in. It was a welcome sight among the other orbs that tossed the frustration and shame concerning cheating from Riley herself to the emotions who had helped with the plan in the first place.

Even if just for an instant, things were looking up.

"So," said the teacher, turning to face the class just after underlining the day's topic on the board, "today we're going to be talking about Memory and Emotion. Don't worry, just basic stuff, an introduction to the kind of thing you'll see in high school. I won't ask you to memorize the exact structure of the hippocampus or anything."

"Is that a hippopotamus brain?" one student asked, earning a few laughs from the rest of the class.

Mr. O'Brian smiled. "No, but it is the part of the brain that stores memories. We'll get to that shortly, but first, we'll talk about the theories of emotion."

"Oh, this should be good," Disgust said. "Let's see how long it takes for him to get something wrong."

"Now, according to Paul Ekman's theory of emotion, there are six primary emotions experienced by everyone."

"Six?" Anger asked, clearly puzzled.

Disgust made a noise akin to a buzzer indicating a wrong answer. "There's five of us!"

"Maybe there's an extra emotion that some people have but not everyone," Joy guessed, though the thought of Riley missing a vital emotion wasn't exactly the best thought.

"Or what if that means we lost one when Riley was a baby?!" Fear gasped, his eyes darting back and forth as if frantically searching his own memory banks to try to recall a separate emotion from Riley's early days who had vanished.

"Oh no!" Sadness lamented, looking as horrified as Fear. "He or she might have fallen into the Memory Dump somehow and we never knew!"

Joy's expression fell, as did Riley's. That possibility was almost worse!

But Riley's expression had fallen for an additional reason, her pencil paused in her writing. The Memory Dump? There was a _Memory Dump_? She desperately wanted to ask, but she told herself to ask them later. Right now, she had to pay attention.

They listened carefully as the teacher wrote the emotions on the board. "The six main emotions are Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Surprise."

Fear immediately looked more relieved. "Whew, I'm basically Surprise, no Emergency Emotion Locator procedure necessary!"

"Actually," Anger pointed out, "I'd say you and Joy kind of both fulfill that."

"Yeah," Disgust agreed, "like Joy's the surprise when you get Christmas presents, and Fear's the surprise when a horror movie does those stupid jump scares!"

"Exactly," Joy said, looking just as relieved as the others that there didn't seem to be a lost emotion after all.

As Mr. O'Brian went through more of the emotion theory, Riley couldn't help but ponder what she had heard between the emotions. There was a Memory Dump in the Mind World somewhere. As much as part of her wanted to see it, the other part was unnerved at the very concept. Those times of her forgetting something she thought she could remember... what if it was less faulty recall and more her mind literally having discarded it?

How much was she literally incapable of remembering? What happened to old memories, anyway?

The emotions all paused as a new mental projection of Riley's appeared on the Mind's Eye, the possibility of what could happen swirling into view. Fear yelped and clung to Joy, then the console.

"R-Riley?" he squeaked. "What are you doing?!"

But she didn't need to answer. They all saw her mental imagining of a cavernous abyss, something that swallowed the colorful memory orbs into its depths like a black hole.

"That's the—"

"Shh!" Fear put a hand swiftly on Sadness's to try to stop her. They all knew what it was.

The Memory Dump. Or at least Riley's nightmarish envisioning of the Memory Dump. Riley had no idea what it looked like down there on her own, so her imagination was filling in the cracks for her.

And the effects on the memories of the imagined Memory Dump seemed as much like a black hole as the Dump's appearance. The memories seemed to play forward and then reverse, the colors growing dimmer as the aspects that made up the memory were vanishing. First the crisp detail, then the visual, then even the words grew fainter until the memories became like nothing more than empty gray marbles. And as they continued falling, they vanished into the darkness altogether.

A few more purple orbs clinked to Headquarters, and the emotions looked at one another. Even saying a word about it could worsen things.

Luckily, Riley was jolted out of her circling thoughts by Ann suddenly nudging her arm. Riley looked at her.

"Go on, Riley," Ann encouraged.

Riley blinked.

"Bring up your idea!"

"Huh?"

"The emotion idea!"

Riley flinched a little, feeling suddenly put on the spot among everything else that was going on in her head. At least Ann wasn't outright volunteering her and drawing the attention of everyone else in the class. But still, if she was careful about it... at least Ann had broken her out of her thoughts of what this Memory Dump was...

She slowly raised her hand.

Mr. O'Brian paused, looking in her direction. "Yes, Riley?"

Riley swallowed, able to hear a certain purple emotion in her head begging, "Don't tell, don't tell!" This was followed by gentle words from Joy, a withdrawal of Fear's input from the console, and a sort of happy feeling that pricked at Riley's mind, giving her the courage to get the words out.

"Well um..." Riley couldn't help but glance around at the corner of her eyes. "What if our emotions a-are actually little beings in our heads who guide our actions?"

Silence met her question, the other students looking at her in silence.

Some looked confused. Others looked shocked. A few even looked angry.

Fear began biting the tips of his fingers. "Please, please, _please_ , don't have any of the other kids go into a 'there's no free will' rampage!"

If Riley could hear into the Headquarters of her fellow students, she would have heard multiple responses:

"SHE KNOWS!"

"What if she reads our mind?!"

"If she knows, she's bound to snap. Mind manuals say it's happened before."

"You know what could happen to the humans if they know!"

"If one knows, soon they all know!"

"Now our kid's gonna question his free will!"

"Let's call her crazy, it's the only way to not cause panic with everybody!"

Finally, the last of those students, a girl with dark brown hair in a ponytail and wearing jeans and a navy-blue shirt speckled with a white skull—much like the black skull shirt she had worn on Riley's first day the year before—narrowed her blue eyes at Riley from a few rows down. "You're crazy."

In Riley's head, Anger scowled. "You could at least have the decency to ignore it!"

Fear tried to race over from his space and tug Anger away, but he was too late as Anger's part of the console let up with a red light. "Riley, don't—!"

But too late. Riley reacted, still frustrated and plagued with guilt over earlier. She swiftly turned to face the girl on impulse. "I'm not crazy!"

That remark caused an additional raised eyebrow from Ann next to her, and Riley felt dread as she noticed. As metaphor it was easy to dismiss, but to suddenly imply that it was something she actually believed to be true...

"No!" Fear screamed in her head. "Wrong thing to say, wrong thing to say!"

Tracy's eyes widened. "Wait a—" She paused for a moment, looking at Riley in a kind of stunned disbelief. "... You're saying you actually _believe_ you have voices in your head?"

"Well, uh..." Thanks to Fear pretty much going nuts with his part of the console, Riley felt at a loss to defend herself. What could she say that wouldn't make the situation worse?

"Isn't that called schizophrenia? You might wanna get that checked out..."

Joy winced, glancing at Anger who looked like he was seconds away from guiding Riley into having an outburst. "Uh, Anger, maybe you could step away from the console for _juuussstt_ a minute?"

Anger scowled and grumbled to himself at how unfair the other girl was being to Riley, but he let Joy carefully pull him back.

Mr. O'Brian shot a look in the other girl's direction, frowning. "Tracy, I'm certain Riley was speaking metaphorically." Losing his scolding tone as his gaze turned to Riley, the teacher smiled a little. "Pretty insightful of you, Riley."

Riley shrugged, forcing a smile on her face. "I just felt like it would help understanding this stuff be easier."

"A very good method if I do say so myself," said the teacher, nodding in approval. "I may have to give you a bit of extra credit for that if you use that effectively in an assignment."

From the other side of the classroom, Tracy rolled her eyes, but still glanced at Riley with a skeptical expression.

Ignoring the other girl, Joy smiled, focusing on the positive side as was customary for her. "Well hey, grade boost, here we come!"

"Maybe that will make up for getting a C on the last test," Sadness said hopefully.

"I'm not sure that was the best way to get it though," Disgust cut in. "Now Tracy over there just thinks we're—"

A frustrated groan from Riley stopped Disgust's words immediately.

"Oh, right... sorry."

Letting out a short breath that sounded as if she were blowing something away, Riley turned her gaze to face forward, taking notes on the first aspects of memory and emotion that she was to learn.

Of course, being only in middle school, what they were learning was rather basic. Introductory stuff, nothing high school level. But with everything she had seen in the Mind World, Riley kept wanting to blurt out things she had seen. Emotions at a console. Memory orbs that were a mix of colors based on what was felt. So much more magical than what that brain stuff was...

It was all true, and she knew it, but she couldn't go saying such things aloud. If she did, she'd no doubt be called crazy again—she could already see Tracy whispering on occasion to some of the students near her, who Riley recognized as the girls that Ann once hung out with.

Before they ostracized her when they realized she wasn't really "cool" in their eyes... or, rather, Tracy had ostracized her, but the others didn't exactly protest.

Riley bit her lip as she noticed the concerned look in Ann's eyes. After having gained her friendship a few months back, she didn't want to lose it due to some slip-ups that made her seem crazy.

Though maybe it was too late for that.

Riley tried to focus on the lesson, which was much easier now due to Long Term finally being fixed, but even as she took down notes, she found part of her mind drifting elsewhere, missing the Mind World more and more as Possibility Island started up again. There she felt free. There she could see things that few people had ever seen or believed to be possible.

She could have her own ideas, her own feelings. There she didn't have to be mistaken for a "we".

There she was just Riley.

Memory orbs of melancholy Sadness, frustrated Anger, and uneasy Fear dominated her consciousness right then. Trying not to shrink down in her seat, she made sure not to say anymore about her secret mind world.

And the moment the bell rang, she hurried out of the classroom without saying goodbye.

* * *

"Tracy isn't stalking Riley, right?"

"We've avoided her all afternoon so far."

"She didn't exactly lash out."

"No, but, she could call the principal and say Riley's crazy..."

"Oh like the principal's gonna believe her..."

For once, Riley was really glad about the school day being over. No weird looks, no taunting today. Just hockey practice and then going out for pizza with her parents.

Adjusting her backpack slightly, Riley had been about to respond to her emotions before she felt her phone vibrate. Pulling it out of her pocket, she looked at the caller I.D. It was Ann.

"Riley, are you okay?" said Ann the moment Riley picked up. "You just ran out of psych class earlier like none of us even existed!"

"I'm fine."

Fear cringed, half-expecting to hear another crack from Honesty Island again. "We don't need another lie!"

Despite her guilt, Riley ignored him.

"Look, if this is about what Tracy said—"

Riley sighed. She couldn't lie about this—not unless she wanted to damage Honesty Island anymore, and she didn't want to lose her friend's trust. "Okay, so maybe this is about what Tracy said."

A sigh was heard on the other end of the line. "I know that Tracy's not exactly the nicest of people, but don't take what she says to heart too much. You told me that before, remember?"

Riley paused. Inside her head, the emotions looked at each other.

Searching for a button on the console, Joy focused on what memory she wanted to recall. And luckily, the right one came up this time. It was a memory infused with the emotional signature of Anger that transitioned to Joy...

* * *

 _One day during lunch the year before, Riley had noticed that two of the "cool girls" from homeroom—Tracy and Ann—were talking. Or, Tracy was doing the hovering-over talking, and Ann was looking like she wanted to just shrink down in her seat._

 _"I don't care if you're wearing eyeliner, Ann! If reading and making those kind of picture-stories is your idea of 'cool', we must have grown up on different planets," Tracy snapped, looking scornfully at Ann's comic-book drawings. "That's such a geek thing!"_

 _The look on Ann's face, which Riley recalled clearly, looked as if her Fear was pressing about half the console buttons. There was a bit of Anger present as well, but it was clear that Fear had command. "I—I just—"_

 _"Hey, leave her alone!"_

 _Tracy turned to face Riley, who was storming over and looking pretty ticked off. Riley felt like she had half a mind to just punch the girl in the face. But instead, she just glared, instead looking down at Ann, who blinked at her with a bewildered expression._

 _"You can come sit with me, if you want."_

 _Ann looked as if she wanted nothing more in that moment, anything to just get away from the humiliation that her "facade of coolness" had bee unmasked. Besides, this girl seemed friendly enough. Clutching her comics close to her chest, Ann finally looked at her._

 _Riley offered her a gentle smile, glancing at the papers. "Don't take what she said to heart. I think your comics are cool."_

 _Those words were clearly a surprise for Ann to hear, but not unwelcome. "Thanks... uh, Riley, right?"_

 _Riley nodded._

 _Her new friend smiled. "I'm Ann."_

* * *

All of them clearly remembered the conversation that followed, the two of them talking during the whole lunch period and getting to know one another. And it had been that very afternoon that forged Riley's new Friendship Island. All of the emotions smiled fondly at it. And Riley smiled too.

"Um... Riley?"

Riley shook herself out of the memory, realizing that she had been spacing out and Ann may have been trying to get her attention for the past few seconds. "Huh? Uh, yeah, I remember that..."

"And you were right. Besides, what you said was just a metaphor."

"Yeah..." Riley bit her lip, glad that Ann was unable to see the expression on her face. "Just a metaphor..."

"Hey, you wanna hang out this afternoon, or are ya busy?"

"Well, I was going to go out to Pizza Planet with my parents after hockey practice..."

"Oh, did you hear they installed some new gaming system over the weekend? I heard the electrical wiring shorted out the power so they had to close it—oh, how about you give me a call after hockey, and we can all go! Think of it as like a 'did great on the test' celebration!"

"Sounds... great..." Riley tried to keep the disheartened tone out of her voice, but her guilt was coming back. She didn't really earn that near-perfect score, after all.

"Sounds great! See ya then, bye!"

"Bye..."

The moment the phone conversation ended, Riley sighed, head off for home so that she could get a ride over to her hockey practice. "Here's hoping hockey doesn't turn out to be a disaster."

"Aw, come on, Riley!" Joy exclaimed, determined to help lift Riley's mood and get a few more golden memories on the shelves that day. "The worst is over, you made it through the test—"

"But we helped her cheat," Sadness sighed.

Joy frowned. "Okay, so, maybe we did, but it helped make up for being scatterbrained! And besides, all that's over now. Hockey and going to Pizza Planet ought to put a smile on your face!"

"Not to mention Tracy won't be there to spout her 'you're crazy' nonsense," Anger added.

A thought occurred to Riley as she walked, her mind flashing back to what had happened in psych class, and during her conversation with Ann and Jordan. She lowered her voice, making sure her conversation went unheard by outsiders. "Um, guys? Why is it really bad to tell other people about the Mind World? I mean, everyone's mind works that way, we all have little voices in our head—"

"That's exactly why it's bad!" Fear interjected.

Riley fell silent. She felt a faint prickle of unease as Fear turned a lever on the console.

The other emotions looked at Fear. Realizing he had five other people waiting for him to go on, he obliged. The purple emotion let his hands drop to his sides. "I mean, you heard us during a dream, so you were used to us. And for the most part, you've, you know, got a good head on your shoulders."

Riley frowned, as did Anger. "For the most part?"

"Well, sometimes you act a bit reckless—"

Anger's fists clenched. "Why you—"

"Okay, moving on, keep going," Riley quickly said.

Clearing his throat, Fear continued. "Point is, you freaked out a bit when you found out we were real and still keep questioning us on the whole 'we' thing. What if someone who's less level-headed found out?!"

Riley paused.

Fear went on, his voice becoming a bit more frantic as he pushed levers and buttons with unsettling thoughts filling Riley's mind. "Someone might start commiting crimes and saying it wasn't their fault and blaming it on their emotions!"

"But the emotions and their person aren't the same!" Riley insisted, a bit more loudly than she had meant to. Noticing the questioning stares from a few people, she quickly picked up her pace.

"Yeah, but Fear has a point," Disgust said. "Not everyone would take that well. If everyone knew, we might see quite a few people in those unflattering prison jumpsuits talking about it."

Riley felt a chill go down her spine. The thought of others acting like that, the questions of how much agency one had in comparison to their emotions... it wasn't the most pleasant thing to think about.

Clenching her eyes shut, Riley's steps grew a bit more hurried. "Let's just get to hockey, and then we'll talk later. And I want to go to the Mind World. Tonight."

"But Riley—"

"Please, Joy..."

After a pause, the emotions reluctantly murmured their agreement. And a frown crossed even Joy's face as the newest memory orbs became tinted with purple.

* * *

 **A.N: Well, that could have gone better for Riley, but hopefully the afternoon will help turn things around. I thought I'd give Ann a bit of a hobby as backstory, I feel like she might end up being the creative type. :) Hope you enjoyed it—reviews are my favorite form of feedback, so review if you get the chance! See ya next chapter!**


	12. Wavering Focus

**A/N: Back again, everyone! Well, Psych class may not have gone as hoped, but lets see how hockey practice and afterward pizza fare! Onward we go!**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I could say I owned Inside Out.**

* * *

As Riley walked home from school, she tried not to talk to her emotions much. Sure, they'd comment on a thing or two, but if they addressed her directly, Riley made sure to only respond when they were completely alone. Or, at least, far enough away from other people so that no one would notice her whispering to herself.

When she did reach home, she went straight up to her room and put her backpack on the floor.

"Finally, home!" Fear exclaimed. "No bullies to follow us here!"

Riley heard Disgust groan in irritation. "Tracy wasn't exactly stalking us after psych class."

"Not that we saw!"

"Anyway, scale of 1 to 10, so far the day's a C minus."

"Aw come on!" Joy said, hoping she could turn their frowns upside down. "Cheer up, guys, it can still be an A-day! Okay, sure school could have gone a _little_ better..."

"A little?" Sadness asked. She glanced over at the Personality Islands before looking back at the emotion ringleader. "We helped Riley cheat and Tracy called her crazy."

Joy lightly nudged Sadness with an encouraging smile. "Well, the day's still not over yet! There's hockey, Pizza Planet, everything's gonna be fine!"

Riley sighed, going over to her closet to remove her hockey uniform as her emotions chatted. As frustrated as she felt about what happened earlier, Joy was right. There's still hope for the rest of the day, she thought, a gold memory sphere rolling in to reflect that feeling.

There were still hours in the day. Things could turn around...

Riley glanced upward slightly, figuring it was the closest to looking at her emotions she could do for the time being. "Guys, I want you to do something for me during hockey, okay?"

"Anything, Riley!" Joy exclaimed, her hands primed and ready on the console. "I mean, before we could just give you emotional guidance, but now we can actually advise you! We're totally gonna—"

"Don't."

The smile on Joy's face faded. "Huh?"

"I need you guys to tone down the talking," Riley said. "At least, don't do it too much."

"But what if you need help?"

Riley sighed at Fear's question, picking up the hockey helmet and placing it in her bag before putting on her uniform. "I've done without the voice-help for a while. I think I'll be fine."

"And we'll still be there to help guide you," Sadness pointed out.

"Ohhh..." Fear glanced nervously at the others before leaning close to Joy and whispering. "I guess we shouldn't tell her we've tried to literally guide her hockey moves—"

"Wait, you do that too?" Riley frowned. How Sadness had worded it seemed to have implied they'd be there to give her advice. Not the console-control thing as Fear was now indicating!

Anger shot Fear a glare. "Now look what you've done."

Fear's entire body stiffened for a moment before his eyes widened like he had just seen something scary, his hands slamming on the console on impulse before Disgust managed to push him away. "How did you hear that?! The intercom's over by the idea bulbs and I whispered!"

"I hear everything," Riley muttered, zipping her bag shut a little quicker than she had meant to.

The emotions said nothing, and Fear's eyebrows rose. They had suspected before that despite the intercom being close to the idea bulbs, the louder noises of Headquarters were available to Riley, such as, of course, their speech. At least as far as the console, even whispers were audible to Riley

Whatever happened there, Riley could hear. Then again, this was her mind, after all.

The silence Inside was broken by Riley's words Outside. "Just, help if you want, but don't be too distracting."

"We'll try," Disgust promised, "providing _someone_ can keep his mitts off the console."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Anger snapped.

The green emotion sighed. "I was talking about Fear!"

"Hey!"

Riley opened her mouth to respond, but she heard the front door begin to jiggle open downstairs. "Just cut down on the talking, okay?"

The emotions looked at each other before Sadness responded. "Okay, Riley."

Feeling that was a satisfactory answer, Riley grabbed her hockey stick from its place at the wall, lifting up her duffel bag as well.

"Riley?"

"I'm here, Mom!" Riley called, hurrying down the stairs and making sure to smile—she didn't want to give any indication that things had gone wrong today. She saw that her mom was already heading over to the kitchen, placing her purse on the table as Mr. Andersen followed in soon after.

"Hey, there's my girl!" exclaimed her dad. "Look at you, all ready for hockey!

"Oh, how was school today?" her mother asked.

"I-It was okay," Riley said, trying to wave any bad thoughts off.

Fear bit the tips of his fingers. "Oh please don't have them ask about the—"

"How'd you feel about the test?"

That sentence from her mother caused both Riley and her emotions to tense up under the gazes of her parents.

"Curse you, Murphy's Law!" Fear lamented.

"Well that hope went out the window," Anger commented, his brow furrowed.

"Don't lie!" the purple emotion begged Riley. "We don't need more trouble!"

Riley tried to fight through the imaginings of what might happen if her parents learned of her deception, hoping they wouldn't pick up on the fact that anything was wrong. "I, uh, feel like I aced my test!"

"You did? Good for you!" her dad exclaimed, giving Riley a congratulatory pat on the back.

"I guess the strawberries helped with the late-night studying, didn't they?" Mrs. Andersen chimed in, smiling proudly.

Not wanting to risk any potential dangers of slipping up, Riley just played it safe by smiling, even though she felt like she didn't really deserve the congratulation. "Heh, yeah, they did."

That, at least, was true.

"So, I guess that calls for a test-acing celebration!" Mrs. Andersen said brightly. "I heard that Pizza Planet just installed a new Buzz Lightyear first-person game! Apparently it was closed for repairs the other day because trying to get the game started shorted out part of the mini-arcade."

"A new game?" Joy exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Alright, first-person games rule!"

Fear cringed. "I hope no one got hurt installing it!"

"If they did, I don't think Pizza Planet would be open," Anger pointed out. "There'd be some sort of sign that says 'Visitors at Risk of Frying'."

"Maybe we ought to have that sign for you," Disgust said with a smirk. "We can have it up on your door!"

Anger scowled, but said nothing.

Riley took a deep breath, trying to force herself to relax, with a bit of encouragement from Joy and Sadness—after all, the game seemed like it could be fun, and it wasn't hockey time yet so her emotions could talk. "Sounds like fun!"

"So, how about it, kiddo?" asked her dad. "Hockey, then pizza?"

"Sounds great, dad!"

"Alright, let's head off and take you to practice!"

Inside Riley's head, Joy looked at the others. "See? Hockey, new game at Pizza Planet, things are looking up today! It's gonna turn into an A-day!"

"Oh please don't talk about A's," Fear muttered, away from the console for the moment as he picked up the test cheat sheets, hurrying them away from the console and shoving them into his locker.

"Oh yeah," sighed Sadness. "I still don't think that cheating was a good idea..."

A blue memory orb was added to the roster of the day, but Riley fought to shrug off the sad feeling in her psyche. So Honesty Island had taken a minor hit today. The 12-year-old wasn't going to let what happened earlier interfere with hockey.

She just hoped the five little voices in her head wouldn't be too much of a distraction along with her thoughts...

* * *

Riley sat in the back of the car with her hands folded in her lap. Just enough conversation to come off as feeling good, but not so much that it would seem she was trying to hide anything that had happened during the day.

"Alright, here we are!" her dad called. "Go get'em, Foghorns!" He grinned and made a noise that sounded like a foghorn.

Disgust looked at the other emotions with an exasperated look. "Seriously? Why do parents have to be so embarrassing?"

"At least no one else is seeing it!" Fear pointed out.

Riley fought the urge to roll her eyes, but still gave her dad an exasperated look. "Dad, that's embarrassing."

Her mother looked back at her. "You want us to come in there and watch you practice? You know, moral support!"

Disgust sighed. "Coming to the games I can get, but every practice too? No!"

Riley agreed with the broccoli-shaped emotion. "No thanks, you guys can just pick me up in an hour."

Her dad chortled lightly as Riley exited the car, carefully holding her hockey bag. "Alright then, we'll be here to pick you up at 5:30."

"Thanks!" Riley called, shutting the door behind her and waving before hurrying off into the building.

The cool air of the stadium greeted her as the doors opened, the young girl racing to the bleachers and sitting down, removing her sneakers and switching them out for her skates, placing her duffel bag beside her. She looked out and saw the other members of her hockey team converged on the ice, as well as the members of their opposing practice team, the Cobras.

At the moment, she was just glad Tracy and her friends didn't play hockey.

"Okay!" Joy beamed, all set to make sure that Riley's afternoon went better than the school day. "You ready, Riley?"

"I hope so," Riley admitted, trying to keep her voice low. "I mean, I know it's just practice, but this is gonna be the first time playing with, you know... you guys."

"Don't worry!" Joy assured. "We'll only give input when we feel we need to!"

"And depending if the Cobras try to intercept us," Fear added.

"There you are, Riley!"

Riley looked up, seeing her coach wave her over, along with the other members of her team.

Riley took deep breaths, trying to keep her focus squarely on the puck. She gripped the hockey stick tightly, her left hand primed to swing at it the moment the whistle was blown.

Her blue eyes narrowed. The emotions leaned forward at the console.

She could do this. The puck was right by her stick...

The whistle sounded, and the hockey players sprang to life.

Riley's stick scraped against several others, a girl from the Cobras swinging the puck right from Riley's, causing her to nearly lose her balance.

"Hey, get back here!" Anger shouted, firmly pulling a lever in front of him as Riley charged forward.

"That was a dirty trick," Disgust muttered.

"Hey, easy, practice just started!"

"Guys, quiet," Riley said, trying to keep her focus on the girl in front of her. Just a bit farther...

Riley smacked into the other girl's side, enough to have the puck skid across the ice and Riley to take her chance, spinning around to head toward the other team's goal.

"Go Riley!" she heard one of her teammates cheer, but she didn't give an acknowledgement that she had heard. She kept her focus straight ahead, trying to filter out noise and just focus on what was in front of her. Focus on getting the puck to the goal.

Left, right, look up, defend, seek out an opening...

"Look out!" Fear screamed, pointing frantically to the left even though Riley wasn't focusing on it. "We're gonna get hit!"

Riley just barely managed to swerve away from the oncoming hockey player, nearly getting off balance but managing to straighten herself. She frowned slightly, trying to mask it as determined concentration. True, she could let that "we" slide—they were in her head after all, and her entire body would get hit, so that at least made sense. Even so, she couldn't deny Fear's shout had been distracting. "Not so loud," she whispered.

Fear shrank down slightly. "Sorry! I thought you didn't see him!"

Anger scowled and punched him on the arm, sending the purple emotion reeling back. "We see what she sees!"

"Yeah, but we have five pairs of eyes to keep additional attention!"

"Okay, okay," Riley whispered, trying to keep her focus on what was around her as she sped across the ice. "Just do it quieter."

"Can do Riley!—oops," Joy lowered her voice. "Can do, Riley."

"Thank you."

The emotions watched tensely, keeping their eyes out for any danger, any opposing moves that might come Riley's way.

Even though Riley was grateful for the helpful swerves and call-outs at times, more than once throughout practice there were times where Riley had let the puck slip from her hold due to a lack of focus. Even so, it was a close practice game.

The Foghorns and Cobras were tied neck and neck with 20 points, and Riley had the puck, zooming toward the goal with her eyes firmly on the gray uniform of the Cobra's goalie. She tried to focus firmly on the goalie's movements, trying to judge where he might anticipate her aim and how to take him by surprise.

There were only 30 seconds left in the practice and they had to make this count.

"Come on, Riley!" Joy cheered, the console lit up with gold. "Just a little more and you'll make the winning shot!"

"Just remember everything goalies tend to do!" Fear exclaimed.

"It's practice," Riley reminded them, "and I wouldn't forget hockey."

As the emotions fell silent at that, Riley couldn't help but think of the Memory Dump again. She wasn't sure what it really looked like, if her imagining was right or not, but she knew that it existed.

Her movements slowed, an image appearing in Mind's Eye of all her memories of hockey falling into the Memory Dump...

"Oh no, that can't happen _now_!" Fear exclaimed, fighting with about five buttons on the console at once. "RILEY, MOVE! Snap out of it!"

Riley shook herself out of those thoughts, and she found her focus back on the ice rink again. The ice rink where she had slowed down, some members of the Cobras were coming right at her, and there were 10 seconds left.

Anger and Joy quickly took charge, giving as much encouragement to Riley as they could. Just before one of the Cobras slammed into Riley to take the puck for his own, Riley took a leap of faith, and swung at the puck with all her might.

The other player knocked Riley out of place, sending her falling to the ice, but the puck was spent zooming toward the goal.

"Come on, come on!" Joy cheered on, everyone in Headquarters watching tensely. Riley didn't have time to retrieve the puck herself, so now it was up to force and luck.

"The puck's not gonna make it," Sadness said, frowning sympathetically.

"Yes it will, yes it will..."

The puck, rather than meeting with the net, just barely met the goalie's hockey stick as it was flung back across the ice.

The whistle sounded, both teams ending in a tie.

"And, that's it! Very close game, great practice, everyone!"

Riley took off her helmet, letting out a dejected sigh as the Cobras' goalie picked up the puck and skated it over to his coach.

"Aw, we lost," Sadness said.

"We didn't lose, really," Joy said. "We tied it, it's okay."

"Yeah, but Riley didn't get the winning shot," Anger pointed out, looking at Joy as if she were Captain Obvious.

"I kept thinking about the Memory Dump, okay?" Riley said in a huff.

Anger's attention was drawn from Joy to the screen of Riley's sight, his hardened gaze replaced by a more gentle expression. "Hey, I wasn't _blaming_ you..."

Going back over to the bleachers and taking off her skates, Riley sighed. "I know you weren't blaming me, I just... I want this day to be over."

The emotions looked at each other for a moment, not saying a word.

"Hey," Joy said gently as Riley started walking out, placing her hand on the console. "There's still Pizza Planet to look forward to! That'll be fun, right?"

Riley let out a sigh as she saw her parents' car parked outside, smiling a little as the next memory sphere was red tinted with gold. "I hope so."

* * *

In spite of earlier, Riley felt her happiness level go up the moment she went through the doors of Pizza Planet, and she heard the five little voices in her head gasp in awe.

The arcade that served as the forefront of the restaurant—which brought to mind the bridge of a starship—had the various arcade games placed in a half-circle lining the walls. The blue lighting and dotted lights resembling stars overhead gave the place an intergalactic vibe, and a screen hung over on one of the walls that projected scenes from a few shows Riley recognized— _Buzz Lightyear of Star Command_ being one of them.

As her parents went to the other side of the restaurant to go get pizza, Riley took the time to see this new game that had been added, and find her friends. Luckily, she didn't have to look far.

While the car racing games, The Claw, and _Fix-it Felix Jr._ were getting some attention, there was a new game in particular that stood out. Titled _Buzz Lightyear: Mission Control_ , it was a large arcade console with two screens, a pair of control panels that actually reminded Riley somewhat of Headquarters save the makeshift laser gun each one possessed, and enough space for two people to stand. Ann and Jordan were standing side-by-side, aiming their blasters at the screen with their bodies tensed up in concentration, their eyes focused on the screen. As each one pressed a console button or joystick maneuver, their character moved accordingly, and aiming their laser gun and pressing the switch at the bottom caused the advancing robots in their sights to be blasted as they went further through Zurg's lair.

"I'm past Gate C with 280 points, I'm gonna win this!"

"You liar! You're 50 points behind me and I can totally see you on my screen!"

"Well I still have a chance..."

Riley couldn't help but smile at the sight. When she had first helped teach Jordan to skate, she had worried if he would feel out of place among her circle of friends. Despite his shyness, he had come to warm up to them pretty well, especially Riley herself.

"I hope they'll have a home console version of that!" Joy exclaimed, seeming to become more alight. "That looks like fun! Say you'll play winner!"

"But don't forget to comfort whoever loses," Sadness added.

Riley chuckled before raising her voice. "I'll play winner!"

"Oh, there you are, Riley!" Ann said, glancing back to grin at her friend before turning back to the game. "We were wondering when you were gonna show up!"

Jordan didn't face Riley, focused too intensely on the game as his character gave Ann's a mock wave (or at least as close as Jordan could get to it given the game's controls). "I think you're gonna be playing me."

"Dream on," Ann scoffed good-naturedly.

After a few more minutes of playing, both of them, finally reaching the innermost sector of Zurg's lair, Ann ended up being the victor, landing the finishing blow on Zurg and taking command of the control room, putting herself 100 points above Jordan. She grinned triumphantly at the boy, whose mouth gaped open.

"... Lucky shot," he finally muttered, removing himself from the console as Ann did.

Ann blew some of her pink-highlighted hair out of her face before grinning at Riley. "Hey, you wanna play?"

"Sure!"

"I wouldn't bet on it being a fair game," said another voice. "Maybe she'll try to sabotage you thanks to her emotions."

The trio looked up, Riley's eyes narrowing at the certain ponytail-bearing girl whose skull shirt seemed to glare at the trio mockingly.

"What are you talking about?" Jordan asked.

Tracy looked from Jordan to Riley in disbelief. "Oh, so you didn't tell your friend you're crazy?"

"Hey, Riley's not crazy," Jordan insisted, abandoning the game despite his cluelessness as to what was going on.

" _You_ weren't in psych class," Tracy pointed out before turning back to Riley. "Your parents brought you here, right?"

"So?" Riley challenged, trying her best to appear aloof.

" _So_ , maybe you ought to tell your parents about your little voices inside your head. That's dangerous to just leave alone."

"Hey, back off!" Ann exclaimed, stepping in front of Riley and trying to have her voice appear confident to her former friend. "It was a metaphor!"

Tracy just crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, doubt flickering across Ann's face as her Fear got some console input. "Then why did she say she wasn't crazy then, huh? She could have just said it was a metaphor, but since she didn't..." she nudged Ann aside to look at Riley, "I think she might have schizophrenia or something."

"I don't have schizophrenia," Riley insisted, her voice sounding less confident than she would have liked.

"Then why did I see you muttering to yourself before?"

"J-Just a habit..."

Fear hurriedly was at work pressing buttons on the console. "Run away, Riley!"

"Are you crazy?" Anger snapped, delivering his own input on both a verbal and emotional level. "That's the coward's way out! We can't just let Tracy get away with this!"

"Well what do you expect us to do, fight?!"

"Stop saying 'us'," Riley hissed.

Unfortunately, her words didn't go unheard by her friends or Tracy.

By the expression on Tracy's face, along with her taunting words, there was a flicker of doubt there; as if she felt unnerved by Riley and the possibility of voices in her head. "You _really_ might want to get that checked out..."

The 12-year-old shut her eyes, Anger and Fear battling it out at the console. Anger especially wanted her to just punch Tracy in the face, but she couldn't do that, especially not with her friends and parents nearby.

She clenched her fists. Both emotions made valid points to her, memory orbs of both manifesting on the shelves of Headquarters.

Joy looked anxiously at the colors of the spheres. Some were red, some purple, most a frantic blend.

Fight or flight, fight or flight...

Fear won, but just barely.

"I-I gotta go."

"Riley—" Jordan said, but was cut off.

"I'm going, bye, see ya later!" Riley insisted, hurrying over toward where her parents were as fast as she could. She felt her face turning red from shame as Tracy's words echoed in her head, fearing that her parents heard and would ask about "hearing voices" on the car ride home.

"You should tell them!" Tracy called in almost a sing-song voice. Riley only scowled further in response, speeding up her walk and hoping that her parents didn't hear. "We don't want you getting psycho!"

Inside her head, the other emotions stared as Anger was fighting not to blow his top.

"Riley, you should have pounded her!" Anger shouted, literally steaming and being held back from pressing one of the buttons of the Curse Word Library.

"No, she would have just gotten in trouble!" Fear argued. "She did the right thing by running!"

"Says the guy who can't defend himself from a paper bag!"

As her emotions argued, part of Riley's hearing was focused on Tracy and Ann's voices as well.

"Hey, Riley's not a psycho!"

"Of course you say that, Ann, she's your friend! Maybe you were basing that one character of yours off of Riley the whole time!"

"Hey, that was a year ago!"

"Whatever, Ann. You go hang out with your friends, don't blame me if you don't come to school again tomorrow because of some 'accident' from psychosis."

Riley had to fight the urge to just race over and punch Tracy in the face, hard. But she didn't act on that desire as she just swiftly turned away, noticing Tracy having walked away from Ann but now looking at Riley herself with distasteful unease.

Right now, Riley just wanted to leave, hurrying to the section of Pizza Planet were the tables were. Her mom had gotten cheese pizza, her dad got mushrooms and onions, and there was a slice of pepperoni on the table for Riley.

"Oh, Riley—sweetie? What's wrong?"

Riley didn't want to lie and say nothing was wrong. "I want to go," she said quickly as she picked up her plate.

"What? Already?"

Riley just nodded, hurrying out and only looking back once to see if her parents were following after her. They were, but it seemed that her mother had just stopped and was talking to Ann. Probably asking what was going on. Not wanting to face that, Riley faced forward and headed outside.

"Well that could have gone better," Disgust muttered.

"That went awfully," Sadness agreed, sighing as a lever was pulled slowly on the console.

Joy only glanced at Sadness pulling the lever before the turned to face the screen again, speechless. This day definitely went from a C minus to a D minus bordering on F. She wanted to offer Riley some comfort, but the yellow emotion knew that wasn't her place. No matter how much she wished it would be.

Riley speed-walked to where the Andersens had parked their car, fighting the tears of sadness that were beginning to blur her vision. The newest memory sphere was now a mix of red and blue. She wasn't even sure if she felt like eating pizza much anymore.

Before, on days like these, she would look forward to going home. Not quite so now. She wasn't looking forward to the questioning about voices in her head if it came to that.

She just wanted to sleep and go to the Mind World tonight. At least _there_ she wouldn't be bothered about potentially being crazy.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, turns out the day wasn't quite an A-day after all. But hopefully things will get better, because next chapter, it's off to the Mind World for another trip! Hope you enjoyed and remember to review! Edited by Heitomos.**


	13. Hidden Depths

**A/N: Well, after the fiasco that was last chapter, here we go with some parental confrontation approaching and a second visit to the Mind World! So, on with the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Inside Out.**

* * *

As the Andersens drove home, Riley stayed silent, not even lifting her head. Part of her felt even glancing upward to be in view of the rearview mirror might encourage questions from her parents. Maybe if she stayed silent they'd ignore it...

Unfortunately for her, they were far from ignoring it. Though her father was trying to appear calm on the surface, his emotions weren't faring so well.

* * *

"Something's not going right," Bill Andersen's Sadness said, looking at the others around the military-base-like Headquarters. "Could be just a school thing, but even Ann says that something's up."

"And if Ann's suggesting there's something wrong with Riley," added his Fear, "then that must be a cause for concern."

"If I could, I'd take action to make sure that Tracy girl gets serious punishment for bullying Riley," added his Disgust.

"I'd ground that girl for life if I were her dad!" exclaimed his Anger.

"Riley has seemed kind of distant lately," pointed out Mr. Andersen's Joy.

His Anger nodded, his large hands gripping the sides of his chair and sitting up straighter. His bitterness toward Tracy was eclipsed by his concern for Riley—after all, they were Riley's father's emotions, not Tracy's, or Ann's. "We should ask her now."

"Yes sir."

* * *

"Riley?" Her dad couldn't look back at her more directly seeing as he was the one driving, but she could see his eyes in the rearview mirror. No doubt his Fear and Sadness were at the console for him right now. "Please, tell us what happened..."

Riley didn't say a word, only looked down at her hands and was able to feel a tear at the edges of her eye. She feared that anything she said might give her away. First her regret and guilt concerning cheating, now this...

After a moment, she sighed, knowing that she had to say something at this point. "That girl Tracy was just being rude... that's all..." She looked down at her hands again, trying to drift her mind elsewhere and hope her parents would just drop the subject.

"Sweetie, look at me..."

She didn't want to look up. And yet she knew she had to. Doing otherwise would only further the implication that something was wrong.

Sniffling, Riley dared to look up to see her mother looking back at her. The devastated look in her expression only pained Riley's heart even more. She was clearly worried about her daughter, maybe even fearful about what she was hearing.

And in her Headquarters, she was.

* * *

Mrs. Andersen's Fear looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin. "What if her hearing those voices the other night wasn't just a half-asleep thing?! What if she's hearing her emotions? Or what if she's not _just_ hearing her own emotions, what if the intercom's broken to the point of—"

"Easy," Mrs. Andersen's Joy said with a sympathetic frown. "It could be just a metaphor for school—"

"Maybe Riley isn't _just_ using it as a class metaphor." her Disgust asked. "Ann looked worried, and mentioned her talking to herself, this could be serious, even if it _is_ her own emotions."

"What if Riley's developing schizophrenia?!" Jill's Fear cried, looking back and forth at the other emotions. "Quick, someone see if she's developing symptoms!"

"We're in the car," her Anger pointed out.

"Then as soon as we get home we'll look up symptoms and see if they fit!"

Mrs. Andersen's Sadness took a deep breath. She was the leader, so she had to keep calm for all their sakes, and most importantly for Riley's. "We need to be gentle with her. Even if she's using emotions as a metaphor, we can't take this lightly. We'll just ask her."

The others murmured their anxious agreement.

* * *

Mrs. Andersen closed her eyes a moment before carefully observing her daughter. "Riley, I was talking to Ann and she said that you were being bullied because of hearing voices... Is that true?" Her expression clearly showed that she was praying it wasn't.

"Great, she's probing again!" Anger exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"All things considered, I'm not exactly surprised," Disgust said.

Riley tried not to flinch as she heard Fear add on as well. "We—uh, you shouldn't lie! You've been dishonest enough today and we don't want the Temple of Truth getting any worse!"

"But if she _admits_ to hearing voices they'll think she's gone cuckoo just like Tracy did!" Anger snapped back.

Riley swallowed, sighing. "I-I... I was just using it as a metaphor to personify my emotions. For psychology class."

At least that was mostly true.

Mrs. Andersen frowned, her eyes expressing her concern. "Ann mentioned it seemed like you were talking to someone right there at the restaurant though... she mentioned you said 'stop saying 'us''."

Riley stiffened, her skin paling slightly.

Anger scowled. "She told?!"

"Hey, she was just trying to help." Joy said gently. Her eyes darted from the Mind's Eye to the console, trying to think of something, anything, she could do to help fix this. "She's a concerned friend!"

"What are we supposed to do now?" Sadness asked.

When Joy looked at Sadness, her smile seemed confident, like she had a plan that she was about to put into action to help Riley get through talking with her parents. After a moment, however, her shoulders slumped, her smile fading. "... I don't know," she finally admitted.

The five emotions watched tensely, primed to give emotional input only when Riley needed it. This was already becoming a delicate situation and they couldn't act too rashly.

Joy paused. The most she could input for Riley was to try to urge her to fake it. Put on a smile, act like nothing was wrong...

Riley tried to force a laugh and a smile thanks to Joy. "I-I was just practicing. Thinking out loud." She managed to look her mother directly in the eyes. "That's all."

But her eyes darted away from her mother's gaze at the last second. And that second only caused Mrs. Andersen's expression to be further furrowed in worry when Riley looked back again.

Causing the recent gold memory orb rolling into Headquarters to be mixed with purple, Fear whipped his head around, racing over to the windows and looked carefully at Honesty Island. The Temple of Truth didn't seem like it was going to collapse in on itself, but the structure did seem to crack even more. The rightmost pillar at the front seemed to have taken more damage.

The purple emotion swallowed a lump in his throat before racing back to the console.

"How's it looking over there, Fear?" Joy asked, trying to be authoritative but unable to hide her concern as a few button presses caused another orb to roll in, this one a mix of purple and blue.

"Not good!" Fear cried. "Honesty Island got another crack and Mom's looking all worried at us—"

"You did it again," Disgust commented, a green orb added as Riley frowned bitterly just as her mom turned around.

"I-I mean, Riley, she's looking at Riley!"

"There's a reason she has Honesty Island, you know!" Disgust pointed out. "Riley's not good with lying!"

Riley just huffed, her mood sullen as her mom didn't say another word. It was clear from her expression before she turned around that Mrs. Andersen could sense that Riley was lying the moment her daughter had averted her gaze.

* * *

Dinner at the Andersen household—the leftover pizza from Pizza Planet—was the most quiet it had been in a while. Riley's parents tried to get her to talk about what happened, but Riley only gave them short answers. She hoped those responses would satisfy them—psych class, practice, the thing with Tracy being a misunderstanding—but she couldn't hide her true feelings and she was a terrible liar.

To the Andersens, it was clear that something was wrong. Riley only nibbled at her piece, picking off a few sausages and pepperoni slice before silently eating.

"Not even the pizza tastes as good as usual," Sadness sighed, working part of the console but avoiding pulling the lever that urged Riley to cry. Crying wasn't something their girl needed right now.

"It's because she had to reheat it." Anger pointed out bitterly, clearly still having Tracy's unfair behavior on his mind. "Reheated pizza tastes bad enough without some jerkish bully like Tracy fouling up the mood, and the car ride home was't exactly pizza-fun-time."

Riley wanted to bring up the question of them being able to taste what she tasted, but she left it alone. As she took another bite of her pizza, she wondered if maybe she could think the question to them. She had never thought to try, but then, it was _her_ _mind_...

 _You can taste what I taste?_

"Yeah—wait a minute!" Fear squeaked, noticing the somewhat fainter, almost ethereal tone in Riley's voice. "Are you thinking that to us?"

 _I'm trying. I guess it's working._ Talking to her emotions this way could make things easier, but she found she had to focus her thoughts on doing so.

Despite trying to appear cheerful, she only ended up finishing half her slice. The anxiety of what happened earlier, and the fear of what could happen in the future, were causing her to feel sick to her stomach.

"Riley?" It was her dad's voice.

She slowly looked over at him. There was no frustration in his eyes, just concern. Worry that there was something wrong with his daughter. "What did that Tracy girl say to you?"

Inside Riley's head, Joy quickly tried to advise Riley, though more verbally than emotionally. "Just tell them the truth."

 _I can't!_ Riley mentally protested, getting better at focusing her thoughts directly to them. _They'll think I'm crazy!_

"Well, just... uh, tell them what Tracy told you, that should be enough for them!"

"But will it be enough to restore Honesty Island?" Sadness asked.

Fear looked at her. "That might not work unless Riley confesses about the test!"

 _One thing at a time,_ Riley thought to them. Closing her eyes for a moment, she looked up at her parents. "Tracy said that she thought I might be schizophrenic because I was talking to myself."

Mr. and Mrs. Andersen looked at one another, then back at Riley.

"And... _have_ you been hearing voices?" her dad asked cautiously.

Glancing back and forth and noticing her parents looking worriedly at her, Riley wasn't sure what to say. If she lied, they'd likely pick up on it. If she told the truth, they might send her to a psychiatrist or an asylum or something.

"I... I..." After a pause, she scowled and shoved her half-eaten pizza slice away. "I'm going upstairs."

"Wait, Riley—"

"I-I'm gonna go work on my homework," she said quickly, hurrying up the stairs without looking back.

"Riley please, is there something else you're not telling us?"

"She's on to us!" Fear cringed, practically waving a hand over the console like playing piano keys.

"Be quiet," Riley said. At this point she wasn't sure if she was speaking to Fear or her parents. Perhaps both.

Anger scowled, pushing a button on the console and dialing up a lever. "They're just gonna keep probing us."

Riley was seething. She knew her parents cared about her, but she had already had a less-than-stellar day at school, hockey, and Pizza Planet. She wasn't ready for this. "You wouldn't believe me anyway..."

"Riley—"

"I'll talk about it later!" Riley grit her teeth as she reached her room, her gaze turning upward as she sensed that familiar angry feeling. "And Anger," she hissed quietly, "get away from the console so I can have some _peace_ Outside for once!"

With that, she shut her door behind her.

Even Anger jerked his hands back from the console at that.

In the moments of silence—both internal and external—that followed after, Riley hurried over to her bed and flopped down onto it. She curled up and lay her head on her pillow, closing her eyes.

And the anger she felt faded away to sadness.

"I just want to sleep," she sighed. "I want to go back..."

The emotions were silent in her head, looking at each other. Riley just flat-out admitted that she wanted to just go back to the Mind World; avoiding the Outside World and rush to her haven of the Mind World.

Fear gasped as he heard a rumbling from outside Headquarters, hurrying over to the windows. He could already tell which one was being damaged before he reached it's view—Family Island. The replica of the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't _always_ missing two poles at the front...

With a gulp, Fear hurried back to the console, wanting to cry out about how Family Island was being damaged but not wanting to put further pressure on Riley. "Well, uh, you can't sleep now," he pointed out, a bit shaky. "It's only 8:00 and you still have to do homework!"

Disgust shook her head, secretly glad that Fear had broken the uncomfortable silence. "Teachers really should give you a break from homework after you take a test."

Riley reluctantly opened her eyes. She didn't want to do her homework. She knew her parents were likely to come up, trying to probe more about what transpired and asking questions that Riley could only give half-hearted answers to. That or lie.

She had done enough lying today.

The 12-year-old sighed and pulled out her textbooks, turning to the next chapter of her Intro to Biology text first. The thought that she had earned a passing grade on the test without earning it the normal way was brought to her mind again. The brief joy she had felt at acing it didn't exactly stick the more she reflected on it.

"Well, uh, at least Pizza Planet was good, right?" Joy offered, calling up another memory to be projected instead. It was the memory of Riley entering Pizza Planet again, seeing Ann and Jordan playing the new game together. Surely if Riley just focused on her happiness then, things would be okay, her bad mood would be lifted even a little...

"Y-Yeah," Riley said, looking down and focusing on working on her homework.

Sadness looked at the memory orb now being projected, seeing the gold color. She gently tugged on Joy's arm, gesturing to the aura displayed around the memory and the color of the sphere itself.

Joy stayed silent as her gaze turned to Sadness. She knew what the blue emotion was trying to convey. The aftermath of that initial feeling of joy left a bitter pain in Riley's heart. Knowing what happened afterward, she didn't really feel so much happiness about the memory anymore. Not when she could only think of how bad it had turned out afterwards, wishing the happiness could have stayed that afternoon.

With a reluctant sigh, Joy nodded, urging Sadness to go on.

Giving her a look of silent thanks, Sadness moved away from the console and walked over to the projection of the Mind's Eye, gazing at the orb that hovered there.

She knew what had to be done. Memories of the past could have their emotional outlook changed when looked at from a future perspective. She had been the first to experience this, a year ago. When Riley's mind was calling for help, their girl needing to let out her bottled up emotion.

Since then, the others had those moments of compulsion as well. They were pretty certain that Grandma's vacuum cleaner was no longer roaming the Subconscious, for one.

But now it was Sadness's turn to do so again. For Riley.

She reached up and carefully touched the hovering sphere, the gold parts of the glowing rim overtaken by blue. That memory brought no Joy for Riley. Only Sadness that everything afterward had turned out badly.

Joy watched her silently as Sadness returned to the console and stood next to her.

"I did what I had to do," the blue emotion said quietly.

Joy wrapped her arm around Sadness, as much as it hurt to no longer see the golden glow accompanying the memory.

Riley glanced upward, her focus on her biology work broken. "What did you do?" she whispered.

"I... I turned the memory sad," admitted Sadness. "I had a feeling you needed it..."

Part of Riley wanted to protest at first, but eventually she merely sighed, realizing Sadness was right. The joy she had formerly felt about that moment was lost. How could she look back on that and feel happy, when almost immediately after she had been accused of being crazy, maybe in need of serious help?

Tracy thought it. Probably even Ann, Jordan, and her parents too.

"I guess you're right," Riley sighed. "I did need it."

The next two hours passed in relative silence. The emotions would occasionally talk to Riley, but her replies were just half-hearted. She did eventually agree with Fear to think about confessing that she cheated the next day, but she really wasn't in the mood for thinking about it right now.

The moment she finished her homework, she went to the bathroom, got changed into her pajamas (again requesting that her emotions not look), and hurried back to her room again, pulling the covers over her head. Her parents had left her alone so far for the night, maybe they would—

A knock on the door. "Riley?" It was her mother's voice.

Riley opened one eye. Part of her didn't want to do any more talking for the night. She just wanted to sleep and visit her emotions and lose her worries for a few hours. But she didn't wan to seem reclusive to them right now either.

Besides, she felt in her heart like she wanted to at least talk with someone who she could actually interact with in the outside world. Even if it was just to say good night.

"Come in."

Her mom opened the door, followed soon after by her dad. Riley tried to suppress a sigh as she sat up, her parents bending down beside her bed.

"Riley," her mom said gently, "is there something really bothering you?"

Riley just looked away.

"We know that before you thought you needed to be happy for us," her dad added, stroking her hair softly, "but we want you to know that if your emotions are troubling you, you tell us."

"Voices or otherwise."

Riley looked both her parents in the eyes, knowing they were expecting her to say something, even hoping for it. But she already felt like enough had happened for the day. She turned her gaze downward before laying her head on her pillow again. "Can... can we talk about this tomorrow?" she asked, faking a yawn that ended up turning into a real one. "I just want to sleep right now..."

The young girl was about to turn away further and close her eyes, but instead paused as she saw her parents' expressions. Hurt that she seemed to be concealing something from them, worry from what Ann said, even perhaps guilt that whatever was wrong had been something that could have been avoided if they had picked up on it...

"I'll talk to you about it tomorrow," Riley sighed. "Promise."

"Good way to get them off her back," Anger grumbled.

"She's being honest about it," Sadness pointed out, pulling a lever on the console and hearing the sincerity in Riley's voice.

"Yeah, but the question is how much she'll tell," Disgust added skeptically.

After a tense pause, Riley's parents nodded.

"Alright, sweetie."

"We... we really hope you'll be more willing to talk in the morning."

Mr. Andersen tried to lighten the mood. "Love you, little monkey."

Riley closed her eyes and turned on her side. "You too."

She kept her eyes shut and waited. It felt like forever before she heard her parents' footsteps fade and the door shut at their departure. Around that time she thought, on the edge of her hearing, she heard a train whistle and the steady clatter of memories being sent down to Long Term. And Joy's voice mentioning the Train of Thought, followed by the emotion ringleader giving a cheerful call of "Meet you down there, Riley!"

And minutes later—she wasn't exactly sure how long it was just her and the silence—Riley drifted off to the level of sleep beyond the dreams that Dream Productions could give her.

* * *

Thanks to Fear bringing a watch along, Joy insisted that all her fellow emotions accompany her to Dream Productions.

"We know how the lucid dreaming thing works, and Riley needs all five of us right now," she had pointed out. "Once it gets to around six in the morning or so, we'll all go back up to Headquarters before Riley wakes up!"

As the Train of Thought pulled over next to Dream Productions and the emotions filed out, Sadness looked at Joy. "I hope it'll be better for her here than it was outside today."

"Aw, sure it will!" Joy said encouragingly, trying to get her fellow emotions to smile as they headed toward Stage A. "We'll let Riley see more of the Mind World, and she'll have a great time!"

Fear tried not to make eye contact. He dared not even bring up the Memory Dump.

They had barely reached the door of Stage A before the night sky lit up slightly, in that sort of in-between light. Riley had made it here once again.

"Operation Cheer-Up, here we go!" Joy exclaimed, ushering her fellow emotions in. There they saw Riley, a little dazed, but the faint smile that began to appear on her face was worth everything to them.

Yet there was a hint of pain hidden behind that smile as well...

The moment the emotions pushed their way to the front, the staff of Dream Productions aware that this wasn't exactly a night for Riley to be swarmed by her fan club, Riley's eyes fell on them. Sadness in particular.

Their blue eyes met, and Sadness instantly knew what Riley needed.

Riley hurried over and knelt beside the blue emotion before embracing her tightly. But this wasn't a sort of excited hug that Sadness had received her first time here. This hug was full of... well, sadness. A need for comfort.

Especially since the emotions saw tears beginning to form at the edges of Riley's eyes.

Sadness hugged her tight in return, rubbing the young girl's back. "Shhh, it's gonna be okay..."

Riley sniffled quietly. "Today was... I just wanted to come back here..."

"I know," Sadness said in understanding. "You feel you're safe here."

Riley's eyes widened a bit as she nodded, and the other emotions looked on with expressions of both sympathy and surprise. But they knew that this comfort from Sadness was just what Riley needed.

Joy looked at the others before gesturing for them to follow her, joining in the comforting huf herself. Of course, she didn't want to encroach on Sadness's space, but she wanted Riley to know that they all were here for her.

Even the others just being nearby seemed to offer additional comfort, and eventually Riley pulled away from the hug. Much to everyone's relief, she didn't look so upset anymore.

In fact, she was smiling.

"Feeling better?"

Riley nodded. "A lot better, actually..." She took a look around, smiling. "So... ready to take me on another trip?"

"Are we ever!" Joy exclaimed, her face lighting up as she took Riley's hand, the group heading out toward Stage A.

"Oh, don't be too long!" Director Paula called, shoving her way to the front. "We were working on a good dream and we want you to see it!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Riley called back, actually managing to laugh, the action only causing her to smile more.

It felt good to be able to genuinely smile again, with no secrets to hide behind it.

* * *

"So," Joy beamed, determined to cheer up her host as the Train traveled upward, "where do you want to see first?" She stuck her head out the side, gazing at the Mind World below. "The Idea Fields, Deja Vu, Inductive Reasoning, Deja Vu, Imagination Land..."

What Riley answered, however, was something that Joy didn't expect for a first destination.

"I want to see the Memory Dump."

All five of the emotions stopped short and looked up as if Riley had just said she wanted to dive into a pit of poisonous scorpions and survive.

"You want to _what_?!" Fear cried, looking at her in alarm. "But Riley, nothing comes back from the Memory Dump!"

"Almost nothing," Sadness added, so quietly she hoped Riley wouldn't hear.

"I-I want to just see what it is." Riley's tone was more insistent now as she glanced at the Islands of Personality below, despite her imagined vision of the Dump still on her mind. "Like if it's similar to how I was imagining it..."

She frowned at the anxious silence she received, her expression nervous yet wanting. It was clear by her own tone that she felt afraid at the thought of it, but she wanted to get her curiosity out of the way as soon as possible. "Just to see it for a second, then we can go somewhere else."

The emotions glanced at one another. None of them were exactly looking forward to seeing how their host would take the truth about the chasm they were flying above.

"Well, um, funny story about that," Disgust said, looking a bit apprehensive at how Riley would react to nearly having caused three of her emotions to fall into said dump.

"Lean your head out and look down," Joy advised carefully, biting her lip.

Fear's eyes widened a second later, racing over to Riley. "B-But not too much!"

Riley cautiously did so, looking around and tilting the path of the train so she could see the features below. She could see Dream Productions, some of the Islands, and what must be Long-Term Memory over in the distance, but she didn't see anything that resembled a dump.

Unless...

"Look _really_ down."

Riley looked as far down as she could, seeing nothing but an inky darkness below. She squinted, trying to make out anything, but the darkness yielded no light.

It was then that her eyes widened in realization. "Is _that_ the..."

"Yeah," Sadness said quietly. "That deep dark chasm is the Memory Dump."

Riley gulped, getting a sense of vertigo as she quickly stumbled backwards. The Mind World that she had found as a wonderful escape had a part of it that seemed unwelcoming to her. Even dangerous.

She had been having so much fun riding the Train of Thought for the first time that it hadn't occurred to her what the cavernous expanse below might be. She assumed it was just some sort of Mind Canyon that had nothing except rock, and that was it.

Her mental image from before of the Memory Dump being like a black hole came to her thought again. She had been above it. In all her excitement about the Mind World, her roller-coaster lopping that had sent some supplies off and had nearly sent her emotions tumbling off as well... and the Memory Dump _had been right underneath her all along_.

"And every memory that falls down there vanishes?" Riley said in a whisper.

Fear wrung his hands together. "Anything, anyone, whatever goes down there eventually fades."

It was then that they heard a sharp intake of breath from Riley, and the emotions were thrown forward a bit from momentum as the Train of Thought came to a stop.

"Any _one_?!"

"Well..."

Riley then began to have terrible thoughts crop up, especially remembering her first wild ride here in the Mind World. Disgust, Fear, and Sadness had nearly gone flying off the side, and while the thought had immediately worried her before, she had hoped she could somehow race the Train of Thought down and rescue them if the need arose.

She hadn't known that they had been flying over a black-hole death-trap the entire time!

And the nightmarish daydream entered her mental processes to the point that she also didn't realize that the Train was now beginning to descend. Rapidly.

The emotions all screamed as their stomachs lurched from the sudden descent.

Fear looked as if he were going to have a heart attack. "AH! Riley, NO!"

But Riley was frozen, her hands gripping the lever to make the Train go forward as if time had stopped for her and her alone. The Train of Thought was practically doing a nosedive into the cavern below, part of her thought processes consumed by the idea of the Memory Dump not just erasing memories from existence, but _people_.

And during that first ride on the Train of Thought, her friends, her very _emotions_ , had almost fallen in, lost forever!

What would happen it one of them had fallen in? Would she have forgotten they existed? Would the Mind World be thrown out of whack?

 _I might have killed them!_ she thought, unblinking. _I would never have been able to feel fearful, disgusted, or sad ever again!_

Riley's throat became dry as the train descended further downward, able to see the faded spheres in various shades of sepia and gray. There were a few that stood out, the color seeming to appear briefly in them... only for the memory to vanish as if the sphere was nothing more than smoke being blown away.

A further thought occurred to her, this one worse than the last—what if _she_ fell in herself? This was _her_ mind! Would she just wake up? Would she begin to fade away, and thus the rest of the Mind World with her?

Would she _die_?

The thought terrified her. She gripped onto the lever, her skin paling, no longer trying to physically or mentally control the Train of Thought as it was careering wildly. The part of her that was afraid of it was desperately trying to direct the train upward. But with the possibilities filling her mind of what happened to what fell down there—namely a mental image of herself and her emotions vanishing into nothing like the memories she had just witnessed—the train ended up jarring like a rickety wooden coaster.

"RILEY!" Joy shouted, scrambling desperately to the front and trying to pull the lever to direct the train upwards despite Riley's grip, the others either holding on to a sturdy part of the train or trying to hold on to Riley to snap her out of it.

"Well, that's it," Anger said. "We're all gonna fade."

"NO!" Fear screamed, practically leaping onto Riley and trying to help tug the train's direction upward. "RILEY, PULL IT UP, _PULL IT UP!_ "

It took another second of terrifying nose-diving, but finally Riley's thoughts came back to the reality of the Mind World, snapping herself out of the thought of them all falling into the Memory Dump. Where was the threshold that caused things to be forgotten?

Almost as suddenly as it had started, Riley focused on directing the train upward, sending the reeling emotions tumbling toward the back of the engine room. Riley's eyes widened as she saw some cargo from the other segments of the train fall below, into the expanse of darkness where they'd be forgotten.

After a time of shooting upward like a frantic rocket, the train steadied out to a more horizontal position, and the emotions staggered to an upright position. Disgust looked like she was about to be sick, and Fear's legs were shaking like jelly.

Riley's grip had slackened on the stick, but the emotions looked at her worriedly as they noticed her stance. She looked like she had goosebumps on her skin, her eyes briefly closing as she let out a shaky breath.

"Riley?"

For a few moments, Riley didn't respond, only gently guiding the Train of Thought to a height between the apexes of the Islands of Personality and the top of Headquarters. Far below the Memory Dump. When she did finally speak, her voice had a little bit of a waver to it, even a determined anger.

"... Who's responsible?"

"Huh?"

"Who throws memories down there?"

"The Forgetters, Paula and Bobby," Sadness said. "They go around Long Term Memory and toss any memories they don't think you need anymore."

Riley briefly remembered Dream Director Paula saying not to confuse her with Forgetter Paula. With this in mind, she frowned, letting the Train of Thought keep going as she turned to face her emotions. "But what if _I_ feel like I need the memories? They don't exactly ask for my input!"

"Hey, it's not like they could in the first place," Anger pointed out.

"Memories don't stay all the time," Disgust pointed out, struggling to remain steady. "I mean, yeah, some do, but if a memory gets faded, there's no point in having them there anymore."

Riley's gaze hardened, turning away to focus on directing the train. "I can't let that happen anymore."

"Well what are you gonna do?" Anger asked in a sarcastic tone. "Make them only toss select ones?"

The 12-year-old's blue eyes became alight with determination, much like when she was trying to score a goal in hockey. "Good idea."

"Wha—I wasn't being _serious_!" Anger exclaimed, looking at their host with an expression of disbelief. He paused, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. "Though I wouldn't mind finally getting rid of that gum commercial."

"Well I'm serious," Riley said shortly, leaning her head out the train window slightly to scout out where Long Term Memory was. "Since I'm here, it'll be good if I can make sure I don't forget things like, you know... test answers."

Her voice at the last two words was laced with a tinge of bitterness, but sadness as well.

The emotions looked at each other. Then four of them looked at Joy.

Joy's eyes widened as she looked back and forth from Riley to them. Anger gave a hand motion to urge her over there. She was the most likely to be able to help Riley now.

Following Anger's lead, Joy hopped over to Riley and stood beside her, looking up with a smile on her face. "Hey, you know what? How about we save Long Term for a bit later?" She reached to put a hand on Riley's, causing the 12-year-old to look down at her. "You need a bit of cheering up right now, and I know just the place for it!"

"R-Really?" Riley questioned, still looking unsure after what just occurred. "Where?"

Joy smiled, pointing down to an area where there was a station for the very train they were riding on. Her eyes shone with hope as she looked at Riley. If any place in the Mind World, aside from Headquarters, could cheer Riley up—and give them all a chance to recover from what just happened—that place was it.

"Imagination Land!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well, Riley's back in the Mind World, and hopefully a trip to Imagination Land will make things better to make up for how the rest of the day went! See you next chapter and remember to review! Edited by Heitomos. :)**


	14. Pure Imagination

**A/N: Well, here we go, Riley visiting the wonderful world of Imagination Land! Expect a few call-backs to the film along the way, and some definite moments of Riley really seeing what she can do!**

 **Also, thanks to Eric the Loony, dogman15, and everyone else whose ideas I've adopted into the story. You guys all rock!**

 **And Joshua, to answer your concern about the stakes being the same as the movie, with losing the Personality Islands... the Islands be taking slight damage, but those are certainly not the main stakes here. I definitely have plans for what the main stakes are though... this story is labeled "Drama" for a reason, after all. ;)**

 **On we go!**

* * *

Imagination Land. The prospect of it alone caused Riley to be able to smile, despite the horrors of the Memory Dump she had just witnessed. It sounded like a place like that was the polar opposite of the dark chasm that spread below.

Seeing as it was her imagination, would she be able to just think something and have it come to be? Could she literally think something into existence, or do anything? The possibility excited her to no end.

She glanced out the side of the Train of Thought as the Personality Islands sped by. Possibility Island in particular was eyecatching to her.

"So, that's Imagination Land?" Riley asked, her voice sounding a little more relaxed as she surveyed the mindscape, directing the train down in the direction where Joy had pointed.

Joy nodded, indicating the colorful area right near Long Term Memory that had a metal building between the two areas. "Yup, over there by that metal building called Abstract Thought." She winced a little. Being deconstructed hadn't exactly been the most pleasant thing in the world. "Long Term Memory's that huge maze just past it."

Riley squinted, able to see the plethora of memory spheres shining from the shelves. She made a mental note to have those places be her next destinations. After all, if Long Term Memory was that close to Imagination Land, then afterward she could confront those Forgetters.

Maybe they could just go through Abstract Thought as a shortcut.

"The station's actually over toward the back of Imagination Land," Fear pointed out, noticing that Riley was more heading toward the front of that section of her mind. "Can't we just park in there like normal?"

"Why start at the back?" Riley asked, a determined grin forming on her face as she increased the downward speed of the train, but more controlled in contrast to the paniced terror of her last descent. "I'm making my own tracks!"

"Sheeee's got a point there!" Joy exclaimed, looking like she could just sail out the train and land down there already. "There's so much to see here up front anyway!"

Riley's eyes widened as she got a closer view of the place as the Train of Thought lowered toward the entrance to Imagination Land like a plane descending onto a runway. She could see what looked like a forest of French fries just beyond the entrance, buildings made entirely of clouds, towering structures of cards... books in the distance toward the back...

It all looked so amazing to Riley.

Like a paradise. _Her_ paradise...

The tracks steadily appeared behind the train as it made its landing, and when Riley slowed it to a stop, she sounded off the whistle before hurrying off the train. She raced forward through the gate like a little kid rushing to her favorite theme park, tilting her head back to observe the towering fries that greeted her as soon as she walked in. "Um, those are edible, right?"

"Sure are!" Joy said, racing over to one of the fries and taking a bite out of it to prove her point. "Go on, try it!"

Riley frowned for a moment, breaking a piece off and holding it in her hand. Would she even taste anything? Could she eat here?

Only one way to find out.

Riley popped the fry into her mouth and started chewing it, testing its flavor. After a moment, she stopped, her eyes suddenly widening.

"You like it?" Joy asked eagerly.

" _Like_ it?" Riley's voice was incredulous, as if she couldn't believe that her emotion friend was asking such a question. "It's the best fry I ever tasted!" The 12-year-old was beaming now as she eagerly broke off another piece of a fry, savoring the wonderful flavor that was unlike anything she had ever tasted before. Perfect temperature, perfect crispiness, everything about it was perfect.

Joy couldn't help but feel overjoyed at how happy Riley looked. "And that's just the start!" She gestured to the line of puzzle pieces that served as a path. "Come on, let's follow the Puzzle Piece Road!" She tugged the young girl forward, pointing out the next landmark. "Look, Trophy Town!"

Riley noticed the larger-than life trophies and ribbons that surrounded a large goalie net, with a ball in front of it. She looked curiously at it. "So, I just kick it?"

"Yeah!" Joy nodded.

"Oh, and prepare to be mobbed by happy mind workers," Sadness added, remembering what happened the time that she had first been down here.

Rubbing her hands together in anticipation, Riley kicked the ball into the goal. And just as Sadness had warned, Riley found herself swarmed by mind workers. As well as the emotions.

"You got first place!" Joy called, holding two trophies of her own.

"So did you guys," Riley teased, trying to hold up the five trophies she had received.

Even Sadness smiled as she held up the blue ribbon the mind workers had given her. "I actually got first place this time too."

"You know," Anger said, taking off his medal, "If we all get first place technically the trophies don't really count."

"Have to disagree, Anger," said Disgust, wearing her medal with pride. "We're just all first place in different things, I guess."

It was then that Riley noticed that one of the trophies she held was different from the rest. "Hey, do your trophies say anything?"

"No, why?"

"This one does." Riley put down the other trophies so she only held one, holding it up. The figure on top of the trophy bore a resemblance to Riley herself, and there was an engraving etched on the bottom.

The emotions gathered around, their own awards forgotten.

"What's it say?"

Riley looked closely at the engraving, and a smile crossed her face as she read it aloud.

" _Riley Andersen._

 _#1 Dreamer_

 _Never stop imagining._ "

"Awww!" Joy said, Sadness smiling as well.

Anger chuckled. "See? Everyone likes you here, Riley."

The young girl's expression turned wistful. "Yeah..."

"Here, I can—oh wait, never mind," Joy said, looking at Riley sheepishly. "I should have brought that bag from my room that could have held the trophy... oh well, I'll just keep it at the Train of Thought for now!" Taking Riley's trophy, Sadness's blue ribbon, and whatever other awards her comrades wanted to keep, Joy sped back to the Train of Thought and returned as quickly as she could. "Alrighty, let's keep going!"

Their path took them a little farther until they reached a town made entirely of fluffy white clouds.

"Ooh, Cloud Town! My favorite part!" Joy raced forward ahead of Riley, grabbing off part of a wall. "See?" she grinned, sitting on it in the air as she rest her head on her knuckles. "Go on, try it!"

"Uh, Joy?" Sadness asked, "I'm not sure that would be a—"

Sure enough, a man stepped through the hole where the cloud wall had once been. His appearance caused Riley to stare, as she found herself a bit stunned to be standing in front of a mustached-man made entirely of clouds. And he didn't look too happy to have part of his wall taken away.

"What's the big idea?" he asked. "Who's taking my wall awa-oh." His cloud-brows widened, actually stepping out of his house as he seemed to ignore the offending emotion entirely, who was holding onto the part of said cloud wall. His focus, instead, was on the last person he expected to see around here.

"Wait, you're Riley aren't you?"

"Uh... yeah," Riley finally said, looking a bit unsure. What was she supposed to say to a sentient cloud? "That's me." She glanced at the chunk missing from his house. "Sorry about your house, my friends were just kind of showing me around."

"Oh, she's with you?" The cloud-man pointed over at Joy. At Riley's nod, his expression became more relaxed. "Eh, then go ahead and take that cloud piece for a spin. My treat for you, Riley."

Riley's eyes widened a bit at this gesture of kindness. "Thanks, uh.."

"Stratus," the cloud-man offered helpfully. "Oh, and, uh, Riley?"

"Yeah?"

Stratus was smiling. "You go run along and have fun, just don't take cloud buildings apart anymore. My neighbors had enough of that last year."

Riley arched her brow in curiosity. "Last year?"

She didn't notice the emotions behind her freeze. Including Fear frantically hand motioning.

"Ix-nay on the ove-may!" he mouthed, really hoping this Stratus guy would listen.

Joy didn't risk saying anything, but her gaze was pleading. Riley was so happy here in Imagination Land right now, that happiness didn't need to be brought to a halt.

Luckily for them, either Stratus got the hint or he hadn't been about to elaborate on the first place. "Some friends popped by for a visit and started demolishing everything."

"Ouch."

"But as you can see, everything's good as new!" he called, smiling as the little group headed for the Lava Floor and were already leaping across the furniture above it. "Don't worry!"

* * *

"I'm starting to wish I had eyes in the back of my head," Riley mused.

Fear looked horrified at the mention. "No, don't do that!" he pleaded. "If you think it here you might _actually end up_ with eyes in the back of your head!"

"Ugh, you _had_ to put that image in _my_ head!" Disgust complained, scrunching up her face and sending a glare in Fear's direction.

Riley then glanced behind herself, looking at her emotions curiously. "Wait a minute, you're saying if I think it, I can do it?"

Fear clammed up.

Joy, however, did the exact opposite. "Probably!" She bounded over to Riley and took one hand, the other spreading out in a wide gesture. "This is your imagination, Riley!" You think it, I'm pretty sure you can do it!"

Fear swallowed at that. "That's just more consciousness tampering! That could be dangerous!"

"Hey, Fear, it's okay," Riley said, smiling to ease him. "I'll just focus on little things..." She looked down at herself. "Like how my feet are getting cold..."

Pausing, she focused on her feet, then her pajama pants, then shirt.

In an instant, right as she had thought it, her pajamas were replaced by her sneakers, jeans, and rainbow-striped sweater that she often liked wearing. "Hey, it worked!"

"Wait, you can _do_ that?" Anger asked.

"Apparently!" Riley was beaming at the new realization, a new spring in her step as she was glad to be in her clothes that were a bit more suited for adventure-going. "Come on, let's see what's next!"

The next thing they came along in their trek was a large construct with a conveyor belt, three spinning panels overlooking it.

Joy tried not to cringe.

"What's this?" Riley asked, looking at the oblong construct.

"Well, uh..." Joy was hesitant to answer. She was well familiar with this particular aspect of Imagination Land. After all, as strange as it was, it had helped her and Sadness save Riley.

The aqua-hued mind worker working the construct answered before the emotions could get any other words out. "That's the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator."

"Imaginary _What_?" Anger echoed in disbelief.

The mind worker shrugged. "First put it up last year."

Riley watched as the separate three panels cycled through, coming to a stop to reveal a boy with a green jacket, with brown hair that stuck up. And as the conveyor belt whirred to life, said imaginary boyfriend appeared from the mechanism.

For a moment, he looked forward as if he were standing on a roof in a dramatic movie, placing a hand on his chest. "I would die for..."

But the boy's voice trailed off as he looked at the ensemble below the conveyor belt.

"... Riley?"

Said girl blinked. "Um... hello."

The boyfriend, for once appearing shocked, leapt off the conveyor belt and looked at her curiously. As if he couldn't believe that she was actually there. "Hi..."

Joy looked kind of disgusted, trying to brush by it. "Well, heh, seems like you haven't gone through many changes..."

"You know him?"

"Sort of," Joy admitted, figuring this was a safe answer. After all, this guy wasn't one of the boyfriend copies that had fallen into the Memory Dump. "Sadness and I met him when the first came up."

"Oh..." Riley's gaze then turned from Joy to the imaginary boyfriend. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm... uh..."

For the first time, the imaginary boyfriend's confident bravado lessened. He paused, first looking a bit thoughtful then changing to an expression of confusion. All he really knew was what Riley had imagined him to be since a year ago: that he was from Canada and that he'd die for her.

Oh, and he could play guitar—Boy Band Island brought that idea in a couple months ago.

Riley had never _given_ him a name in her mind. He shrugged, completely at a loss. "I don't actually _have_ a name."

Riley's expression brightened. "Hey, since I'm here, I can give you a name right now!". Grinning a little at the boy, she tapped a finger to her chin, thinking it over. Suddenly, her mouth turned up in a smile. "How about Harry?"

Disgust stared at Riley, arching one eyebrow as if the name had appeared in front of her wearing a tacky outfit that smelled like mildew. "Harry?"

Riley gave them all a sheepish grin, shrugging. "Well, he is based off of that one band member guy I like, and I like the name Harry."

"I like it too," Sadness offered helpfully.

"Me three," said the boyfriend—or rather, Harry. In truth, he was glad to have any sort of name, so Harry worked out fine.

The three glanced over at the green-hued emotion.

Disgust knew that the trio were hoping she'd say "me four", but that was more a Joy thing. Instead, she looked a little skeptical. "Well, Harry does sound like 'hairy', so that certainly fits given the hair."

"Hey, Harry!" Riley turned and looked at her imaginary boyfriend with a grin. "You wanna come with us?"

Sadness smiled a bit at the thought. Joy and Anger cringed, and Fear looked anxious.

Disgust, on the other hand, looked disdainful at the thought of anyone with that kind of hair being dragged along with them. This was Riley's cheer-up tour and no one else was gonna step over it.

Harry widened his eyes a bit, as if he found the thought unnerving as well. "I dunno... I've never been out of Imagination Land before."

"Of course not," Disgust looked incredulous. "You just got out here 30 seconds ago!"

"30 seconds in which you've managed to not die," Fear added.

"Well, um, I'd die for Riley," Harry insisted, trying to keep up the cool-guy look again.

Disgust looked like she wanted to bang her head against a wall, but she settled for a facepalm instead.

The boy looked at first at Disgust, then the other emotions, then finally Riley. "Well, maybe I could come with—"

And for Disgust, that was the last straw.

"Woah, hold up there, buddy." Disgust looked at Harry with a somewhat critical eye. " _You_ need a haircut."

"What?" Harry looked at Disgust like he couldn't believe what she was saying. "But Riley likes my hair."

"It looks like a lion's mane!" Disgust retorted, her hands on her hips. "Honestly Riley, you think that looks attractive?"

"Umm..."

"Someone with that kind of hair, in public? No thank you. First opportunity that arises, you're getting a haircut."

Harry looked almost skeptical, even a bit sad. Huh, feeling sad, that was new.

Disgust rolled her eyes. "Tell ya what, hair boy." She practically pulled him by his shirt for a moment, looking at the brown mane of hair on his head. "If you at least get your hair less like a lion's mane and more _manageable_ , then maybe I'll let you be seen around elsewhere." She released her hold on him and crossed her arms. "Riley needs some cheering-up, so she should actually get to see everything we can reach with us before she's gotta wake up again. Got it?"

Harry blinked, stunned a bit at Disgust's words and actions, but reluctantly nodded, nearly crashing into the conveyor belt as he was no longer supported by Disgust gripping him. "Got it."

Disgust sighed. "Good." She waved her hand, leading the rest of their group onward, though Sadness and Riley each turned back to give Harry small smiles. The green emotion just made a point to persevere through this.

"And by the way," she said, glancing backward quickly herself. "While you're at it, get some personality other than that cool-guy 'being willing to die for Riley' thing. That will only get you so far."

The boyfriend stared after them as if that last sentence were the most perplexing thing anyone had ever said. "Um, well, I'm from Canada."

"Gonna need more than that!" Disgust called in a tone that could have resembled Joy's.

Harry's eyes widened, looking around for a second as if hoping he'd find something that would automatically give him more personality traits. "But how?"

"You have a brain," Disgust called back, "I think. You'll figure it out."

* * *

Riley laughed gleefully as they walked on, looking as if she were in heaven.

"You seem pretty happy, Riley," Sadness commented.

"I'm more than happy!" Riley exclaimed, looking as if the incident at the Memory Dump and the worries Outside were the farthest things from her mind right now as she bounced around in a manner much like Joy. "I feel like I could fly here!"

She gave a joyful leap into the air. And she was shocked, as was everyone else, when the leap propelled her higher than she meant to, and when she did lower from that apex, her feet never reached the ground.

The jaws of the emotions all dropped.

Riley was hovering about a foot off the ground.

"AH!"

Riley stumbled a bit in shock, but still managed to keep herself hovering. For a moment she seemed frozen in shock, her mind still adjusting to the fact.

But that went away as she dared to move up a little, then down. Then flying back and forth like she was a superhero.

Any and all problems she had on the Outside fell away as she soared high above in the sky...

"WHOO-HOO!" Riley shouted, practically doing loops in the air, feeling giddy as the landscape of the Mind World spun around her. "This is just like that dream I had where I was flying except I'm actually doing it! I'M FLYING!"

"Go Riley!" Joy called happily, giving the air a first-pump.

"AGH! Be careful!" Fear called, his voice seeming higher due to his worry. "You could get hurt up there and we can't help you!"

It was then that Riley paused in her flight, the elated grin on her face looking almost mischievous. She beamed down at the five. "Who says you can't?"

With that, the five on the ground let out gasps of surprise (or, in Fear's case, screaming his head off) as they suddenly found themselves lifting off the ground as well, brought up to Riley's level.

"See?" Riley said. " _Now_ you can help me!"

Joy let out a happy squeal, starting to zoom all around as if she were a bird. "WE CAN FLY!"

Sadness cautiously glanced down, seeing the top of French Fry Forest now just out of reach. "Wow, everything's starting to look small..."

"Hey, what do you know," Anger said. "For once I don't feel like the smallest guy around anymore."

"What the, what, huh..." Disgust's mouth fell open, looking around and below before she stared at Riley. "Riley, _how_ are you doing this?!"

The 12-year-old beamed. "My imagination!" With a laugh, she began soaring up a few more feet. "Come on, everyone!"

While the other emotions followed with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Fear gulped and stayed behind. Flying? Up higher?

Fear hung back. "Uh, no," he said, fighting to direct himself more toward the ground, "I think I'm gonna just sail down to the ground where it's safe, and stable and—"

"Aw come on!" Joy grinned, zooming after the purple emotion and gripping his hand, already getting the hang of flying as she carried him up. "Besides," she added over his rapid mutterings about how bad this was, "you _said_ you wanted to look after Riley, right?"

That, at least, was enough for Fear to listen. For Riley. He swallowed his unease and, looking at the others, he cautiously let go of Joy's hand and focused on flying upward. Just so he could catch up with Riley in case he needed to guide her away from something.

After all, there were plenty of dangers up here. Falling, imagining something hitting her on the head and knocking her out...

"Okay, clothes-changing, flying, is there anything you _can't_ do here?"

Riley just grinned, a look of mischievous wonder on her face. "I think I can do more than that!"

With a smile, Riley's eyes darted back and forth as a section of the sky above Imagination Land started to change. Instead of being the transition phase it was normally at this time when Riley was present in the Mind World, the sky darkened and became scattered with stars. Gentle clouds floated lazily by, and a replica of the moon shimmered into existence above, just as bright as the real one.

The emotions looked up in awe.

"... Wow."

For once, Joy was nearly at a loss for words, but she followed Riley all the same.

As Riley led them through the sky above Imagination Land, getting a good view of the park-like area and even some of the surrounding landscape, the emotions couldn't help but have fun as well. Even Sadness was smiling as she watched the clouds go by.

Though he was calmed a bit by Joy, and Riley's assurance, Fear frantically tried to stop Riley whenever she tried a dangerous stunt, but his efforts were in vain.

"Riley, please, tone down the excited flying!" Fear squeaked. "It's too dangerous!"

"But this is _amazing_!" Riley cheered, doing dramatic loops in the air as she looked down at the part she could see of Imagination Land as she flew higher. "I could stay here forever!"

The emotions stopped their joyful flying, the contagious hold of Riley's happiness broken. They looked at one another, Fear especially looking the most worried.

"D-Did you hear what I just heard?" Fear stammered.

Disgust nodded. "If you just heard her say 'I could stay here forever'? Then yeah, I heard that."

Fear in particular tried not to feel dizzy. The thought of Riley feeling that was a possibility he hoped would never be brought up. "B-But she _can't_ —"

"Hey, don't worry!" Joy assured. She looked from the expressions of concern on the faces of her companions to the elated way Riley was flying, the girl now imagining a few of the clouds coming together to form a makeshift bed as she settled onto it. "Riley's just really happy right now, she didn't mean ' _forever_ ' forever. Let her have a little fun!"

Riley placed her hands behind her head, staring up at the imaginary moon with the stars twinkling around it just above her. It looked so much brighter than she had ever seen it in her Outside life, but not to the point it hurt her eyes.

Here, flying in the air on this cloud, gazing up at the stars, she felt like she could just be free. It was so peaceful up here.

"Even the moon looks better here than it does when I'm awake..."

Suddenly registering Riley's words, Joy's face froze as an idea filled her mind.

 _The moon..._

The yellow emotion's own train of thought took her back to that moment over a year ago. Those final words from Riley's forgotten friend echoed in Joy's head.

 _"Take her to the moon for me, okay?"_

Bringing her focus back to the present, Joy looked over at Riley, seeing her face trained thoughtfully toward the moon as well as she continued to hover contentedly on her cloud. An idea suddenly lit up the emotion's face as the others looked on. "Hey, Riley?"

"Yeah?"

Joy cleared her throat a bit. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance...

She flew to Riley's height in the air, singing a little.

" _Who's your friend who likes to play?_ "

Riley paused, only half-listening. "Huh?"

Joy's face bore a look of determination. Somehow, there had to be a way for this to work. There had to be at least some memory buring in the depths of Long Term. The mind workers can't have thrown them all away...

It had been over a year since he had faded in the Memory Dump, so it was a long shot. A very long shot.

But Riley didn't consciously remember everything in Long Term all at once, or she'd go crazy. It had to be called up, brought to her attention somehow. If there was a chance, the smallest chance...

" _Who's your friend who likes to play?_ "

Again, Riley's brow furrowed, paying more attention but not quite recognizing the song.

Joy shook her head, but there was a hopeful smile still present on her face. "Hopefully I can help you remember. Come on, let's head over to Long Term Memory!"

"L-Long Term—Joy!" Fear rushed forward to try to stop her, albeit a bit clumsily due to still not being used to flying. "Riley—"

"No, I think Long Term Memory's a great idea," Riley said, sitting up and looking at the purple emotion. "I wanted to go there anyway to talk to the Forgetters."

"But they'll be asleep!" Fear protested, hoping that was the case. After all, if they were asleep, Riley couldn't convince them to do something drastic...

"All things considered, I think they might still be up seeing as Riley's here," Anger pointed out.

Riley nodded in satisfaction, a triumphant grin on her face as she gestured for the others to follow, picking up the pace of her flight.

"But we could get lost in there!"

"No we won't," Joy said with a grin as she placed an arm around her teardrop-shaped friend. "We've got Sadness!"

Sadness's cheeks turned a bit pink at the compliment.

"But... I..."

"We'll just see Storybook Land and then head back over to the Train of Thought to Long Term," Joy assured. "No big deal!"

As Riley raced forward with Sadness and Joy alongside her, Fear hung his head.

There was just no winning for him today.

He then snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed that Riley was starting to approach the threshold of Storybook Land, still sailing in the air without a care in the world as she held Joy's hand on one side and Sadness on the other.

With the others following after, only Fear in his cautionary survey of the area happened to look down. And he saw something in Storybook Land that definitely should not be there.

The Stream of Consciousness, which spread into Storybook Land, was visible until it dipped down below ground. And right nearby, there was a dark hole. A hole that had apparitions of memories appear and disappear.

"Riley, WAIT!"

Riley turned to face him, still flying. "What?"

"LOOK DOWN!"

"Fear, it's fi—AGH!"

Riley happened to look down as did the others, and her feeling of freedom in the sky was lost. She suddenly found the sharp pull of gravity bring her down as the black-hole-like chasm met her vision, her concentration broken as the five emotions found themselves plummeting to the ground as well.

Recovering as quickly as he could, Fear looked like his eyebrows were going to fly off. "RILEY!" he cried, shooting forth with a speed he didn't realize he could possess while half-flying, nearly grazing the tips of the upright books. True, they may cushion Riley's fall, but by the looks of it as his legs made a shaky impact with the ground, Riley might land just outside it. Who knew what could happen?

Riley frantically scrambled as much as she could to at least get partially back into flight, Sadness and Joy trying to help as well. But with her concentration broken, flying was no longer a possibility, and the trio were now falling in a tangled mess. In those moments, Riley began to imagine falling down below into the Memory Dump, the darkness present in Storybook Land almost seeming to grow bigger in response.

But luckily a pair of thin, scrambling purple arms reached her before she hit the ground, though the emotion himself was nearly squished flat in the process in his tackling race to catch her. Joy and Sadness hit the ground soon after.

Riley winced from the impact, fighting to reorient herself as the other emotions raced forward, having had a smoother landing than Fear but most importantly relieved Riley was safe.

"Are you guys okay?" Disgust asked.

"I-I think so," Riley responded, standing up and moving a little away from the emotion she had nearly crushed. "Though I'm not too sure the same can be said for Fear..."

The purple emotion carefully picked himself up, his limbs looking a little shaky and his chest taking in deep breaths, but aside from that he appeared fine. He shuddered a little, as if waking up from a bad nightmare. "I-I'm fine... wait, no, not fine!" Fear leapt up and frantically pointed at the cavernous hole, the darkness present right near where the Stream of Consciousness dipped below the surface. "What's that?!"

The others paused, each drawing in gasps of surprise as they saw the pit. Not only could they see apparitions of forgotten memories, but as they looked on, they could see wispy illusions of other beings falling in and vanishing.

Apparitions of the emotions. And Riley herself.

Riley stepped back, her eyes wide not in amazement but in fear. The others didn't have to say a thing. She knew exactly what this was.

Everything she imagined strongly was given a form in Imagination Land. And her fearful imagery of the Memory Dump before she had seen the real one was no exception.

Fear looked like he was torn between running away and standing frozen as he looked at Riley with horrified eyes. "Um, Riley? That shouldn't be here, get rid of it!"

"I thought you were the one who said 'no consciousness tampering'" Anger pointed out.

"W-Well _this_ is just imagining, I don't think it counts!" Fear frantically tried to reason.

Riley focused on the phantom Memory Dump. If it was born of her imagination, all she had to do was will it away.

Taking a deep breath and focusing, Riley tied to focus her thoughts on having the Memory Dump here vanish.

 _'You've seen what the Memory Dump is actually like, Riley,'_ she thought to herself. ' _It can't hurt you anymore.'_

As that thought was firmly lodged into her mind, the imagined view of the Dump slowly faded. The hole in the ground appeared to close as it vanished, leaving Sotrybook Land in all its glory once more.

For a moment, there was silence. Silence which was eventually broken by Fear.

"... All in favor of getting back to the Train of Thought, say 'aye'," Fear said quickly.

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Right behind you."

The small group hurried back to the forefront of Imagination Land, the portion of dark sky fading above to reveal the transition shade of Riley's lucid state.

"We really gotta get that imagination thing there under control," Anger said as the train began its ascent, heading across to Long Term Memory.

Riley nodded in agreement.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, Riley had a mostly good time in Imagination Land, but seems like her thinking about the Memory Dump had a few nasty side-effects. That was inspired by the Disney Infinity game (haven't played it but saw some cutscenes) where Riley watches a scary movie, and imagined versions of the creatures in the movie appear in Imagination Land, so I figured that could happen here. And yeah, I named the boyfriend Harry since his appearance is based off Harry Styles from One Direction, so yeah. XD Next chapter though, it's off to Long Term to try to meet the Forgettors, among other things! ;0 See you next chapter and remember to review! Edited by Heitomos.**


	15. Memory Lanes

**A/N: Here we are. chapter 15! I wanted to get this out before, but stuff came up, like writer's block, and editing—and I was Joy for Halloween this year so that was fun! And before we get this underway, I have a couple things to say:**

 **I do read the TV Tropes pages, and noticed the mention of "Informed Wrongness" on the Your Mileage May Vary page, concerning the story not explaining precisely why Riley's instance of "cheating" was wrong, aside from the fact that she believed it's wrong... well, there will be a mention of that later, and it will tie in in some part to the larger events of the story that will soon occur—not really the cheating itself, but Riley's thoughts on the matter.**

 **And Joshua, I understand your sentiment about exploring more of what Riley can do in Imagination Land, really wanting to explore how much Riley can consciousness-tamper, and to that I'll say this—that won't be the only time Riley will be visiting Imagination Land. ;)**

 **Also, for those who said they wish they could do the things that Riley could do... read flarn2006's review for Chaper 14 on the Google Doc thing I mentioned in the Author's Note of Chapter 11—yes, lucid dreaming is a thing you can do in real life. :)**

 **Land one final quick point: someone on Inside Out's YMMV page mentioned that Jordan's Sadness is female as shown in "Riley's First Date",so I went back and changed that accordingly. :). And I got the DVD of Inside Out today, yay!**

 **So with that said, off to Long Term Memory to see what happens!**

* * *

With the tracks appearing behind the train as it sailed over Abstract Thought, Joy found herself lost in thought even as she could see several bewildered figures in Storybook Land, some of them from stories Riley had created herself who were no doubt trying to figure out what had been up with the whole Black Memory Hole thing. Something that they'd no doubt want an explanation for.

Joy figured that, providing this plan in Long Term worked, they could return to Imagination Land to settle the matter once Bing Bong returned. After all, he had once said he was "practically the Mayor" of the place, and no doubt he and Riley would have a ton of fun there. Imagination Land really would be like a paradise for Riley then!

As much as the thought thrilled her at the prospect of seeing Riley happier than ever, and seeing her old friend Bing Bong once more, doubt began to creep into Joy's head little by little. She knew there was no certainty that any memory of Bing Bong had survived that would be strong enough to trigger him returning. Maybe Riley holding a more faded memory here would cause it to become more vibrant again, but she wasn't sure.

The yellow emotion was broken from her musings as she sensed Riley began to direct the train downward. "Um, Riley? What are you doing?"

Riley's gaze was trained on the long gray structure that stood between Imagination Land and Long Term Memory, guiding the train toward the Long Term Memory side. "I wonder what Abstract Thought is li—"

" **NO!** "

All her emotions shouted the word at the same time, Fear especially trying to fight Riley's thought-direction by racing forward and tugging on the stick to direct it upward. "That is a _definite_ no!"

The train wobbled a bit, Riley taken aback by their simultaneous response and looking in particular at Fear. "Why? What's in there?"

Joy frowned, remembering going in there all too well. "Well, it processes your abstract thoughts."

Riley's intrigue only seemed to increase at this, her face taking on a more perplexed expression as she pondered if her curiosity about Abstract Thought was an abstract thought in itself. "If it processes my thoughts, why can't I go in there?"

Joy quickly answered, knowing that she had to sway Riley's boundless curiosity. "Um, remember learning about those paintings done by Picasso?"

Riley arched her brow as she looked at Joy curiously. "Yeah."

"Think of yourself turning into something _from_ one of those paintings, and breaking apart before becoming flat. That's what happens to everything in there."

Riley winced, the mental image coming to her mind not exactly being pleasant, now fully understanding why they had protested so much–any curiosity that had been previously lighting up her face was now replaced by a facial expression that was very much in the "Do Not Want" category. "Yikes."

"Yeah, that wasn't fun," Sadness admitted, frowning at the memory of trying frantically to get herself and her companions out of that chaotic chamber. "We almost didn't make it."

"We wouldn't have if you didn't have that fall-on-your-face idea," Joy said, nudging Sadness and seeming more relieved as the train turned from Abstract Thought to sail over Long Term Memory instead. "That was a great idea."

Sadness smiled in appreciation.

"Which is why it's a great idea to _not_ go in there," Fear added on, looking relieved as Riley mentally guided the train to ascend, the tracks forming around them to sail over Long Term Memory. "Safety first, Riley!"

After what she had just heard as eyewitness testimony, Riley could agree with Fear on that front.

The train moved forward, the corridors of Long Term Memory stretching out like an endless desert. Riley stared in awe at every colored memory sphere, squinting and trying to make out any details at this distance.

These were all her memories. Even the ones from years past that she couldn't consciously remember were stored in there somewhere—maybe faded a bit in color, as she noticed some memories were a darker shade than others, but there nonetheless.

Traveling over the endless shelves of memories, it was then that Riley took notice of pairs of small creatures down below, patrolling the corridors and chatting with one another. "Who are they?"

"They're the Forgetters," Sadness said, poking her head out the window. "They patrol Long Term in groups of two and toss fading memories into the dump."

 _Forgetters_. Riley's gaze grew more determined as she brought the Train of Thought to a stop. "I want to talk to them."

"Um, I'm not sure that would be a good idea," Fear argued, already suspecting this could go badly considering what had happened in the Memory Dump earlier. He quickly tried to come up with some other excuse aside from 'You could mess things up if they agree to not toss any more memories'. "Uh, because..." he glanced at his watch. "Because it's 12am!" He hurried to the controls at the front. "You know, you could get out of your lucid dreaming state if we don't get back soon, we've got a _lot_ more stuff to see and then quickly get us all back to Headquarters!"

Riley shook her head, though her expression toward him was understanding. "I think I'll be fine as long as we get back there by 3am or something. That should give me enough time to get a decent amount of REM sleep and still see more of the Mind World until the next time I come here."

Fear tried to pull on the controls to direct the Train of Thought away, but it didn't budge, Riley having mentally locked it in place. Like it or not, the Train wasn't going anywhere.

"Okay, but how are you gonna get down there?" Disgust asked, glancing down. "The Train of Thought can't exactly fit down there, and—"

"Don't try to fly down!" Fear begged, zipping away from the train's controls and clinging onto Riley as if afraid she was going to leap off the train any second. "If that only works in Imagination Land you could fall and die and we'd get stuck here or die or something!"

"Don't worry, I wasn't gonna try that," Riley said, gently prying Fear off of her, smiling down at him to hopefully put the jumpy nerve at ease. She paused, looking around. "Is there any rope or something that we could use to climb down?"

Fear gulped. "Climb down?"

"How else do you think we'd get down, genius?" Anger snapped. "Skydiving isn't exactly an option here, and even if it was we'd have no way to get back up to the train in the first place!"

Fear frowned, still looking unsure. "Point taken, but I don't see any ropes or ladders around here."

"Then why don't _you_ go check in one of the other cars?" Anger asked, looking irritated.

"Okay,, I will!" Fear scrunched up his face, his eyes narrowed as he tried to show some bravado, turning away from the others and opening the back door... only to scurry out and race across to the other train cars, opening each one and glad that the closed compartments had prevented everything in those sections from falling into the Memory Dump.

After about 30 seconds, Fear came back, a triumphant smile on his face as he was carrying what looked like several small ladders. "Luckily some of the closed compartments had something perfect for this kind of thing, adjustable ladders!" Placing most of them down, he picked up two of them and pointed out the links on the end. "See, they can link together and they can extend, that should get us down there with no risk of skydiving moves or rope burn!"

"Great find, Fear!" Joy said as the purple emotion gestured for them to follow to the cart right behind the cab, now bare of boxes thanks to the Memory Dump fiasco.

Extending a few of the ladders and stacking them together like building blocks, eventually a long enough chain was made to reach to the floor of Long Term Memory, the start of the chain hooked to the side of the Train.

"After you, Riley!" Joy grinned.

"No, no, I'm going first!" Fear argued. "In fact, all of us emotions should go first, then Riley." He looked up at the girl in question as he started to hurry down the ladder. "That way if you fall, the rest of us can stop you from getting hurt!"

"So basically we'll be her safety mattresses?" Disgust asked, giving Fear an exasperated look.

"I think I'll be fine," Riley said, though she understood Fear's concern. It was a long way down, after all...

Anger followed Fear down the ladder chain, with Disgust, Sadness, Joy, and Riley following after. As the group of them finally touched the ground, Riley couldn't help but look around in awe. With the kaleidoscope of colorful orbs that surrounded her on all sides, and how high the shelves towered above them, Riley could see exactly what it was easy to get lost.

Good thing Sadness had her navigation skills and they took the Train of Thought...

Riley ventured a bit closer to the shelves, and stared at each of the memories as if mesmerized by their glow. She could see herself in every one of these, some when she was five and others from months or weeks ago. Some with her parents or friends, and some with just Riley herself.

It amazed her how she could literally pick up one of those colorful spheres and hold it in her hands. And every one was like a video recording of her life. She couldn't help but briefly wonder if she managed to put every one in order, somehow, if she had all the time in the world, so she could view basically her entire life through these memories.

Of course, the memories were organized by subject, not time of creation. And she didn't have all the time in the world, just a few hours. And thanks to the hundreds of orbs that had been tossed into the Memory Dump there were bound to be gaps...

Riley's awe at the memories was then broken by hearing two unfamiliar voices. Well, unfamiliar to her. To Joy and Sadness they were recognizable, and Joy was pretty certain she herself had had a dream a few months back of them singing that dang gum commercial song.

"Think the other Forgetters are gonna start taking night shifts?"

"Don't think so, not all of them are night owls. But hey, with Riley here, sky's lighter, more memories primed to come in from tonight, it's like a night-shift challenge for us."

"Yeah! Okay, where are we, Section M—oh, hey, think we can toss this one?"

Riley instantly started running, the emotions frantically trying to keep up.

"Still has a little bit of color, it doesn't seem quite faded enou—AGH!"

Paula was cut off as suddenly a being much taller than her slammed into her, knocking her and their cart of memory orbs over. Bobby had barely managed to avoid being squished himself, but he stared at the being who hurriedly picked herself up.

Riley blinked, surprised at how small these jellybean-like beings actually were now that she was standing next to them. She had expected the Forgetters to maybe be about Joy's height at least, but they seemed barely as tall as Anger!

The two Forgetters stared up at Riley with equally shocked expressions, much like Rainbow Unicorn had given her upon her first arrival. Then they became a whirlwind of chatter, Paula and Bobby excitedly talking in turn.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Riley!"

"Great to actually see you!"

"We love Possibility Island, great job!"

"Will you sign my memory checklist notepad?" Paula asked, holding up the list she carried and a pen. "There's space right there at the bottom!"

"Oh, sign mine too! By the way, I'm Bobby, this is Paula!"

"Uh... sure." Riley felt her cheeks flush at the attention, as if it were Dream Productions all over again, taking the pen and signing both of the notepads. "Director Paula at Dream Productions mentioned you."

"Oh, did she?" Paula asked with a laugh. "People get us confused _all_ the time, we've gotten each other's mail and everything!"

Riley cleared her throat. "So... you guys are the Forgetters?"

"Yup, that's us!" Bobby said with pride, picking up the fallen memory spheres and placing them back on the cart. "And sorry about the scatterbrained thing before, most of that was really because it took us a while to even _decide_ where to put the soul memories in the first place—"

"Soul memories?"

"Yeah," Paula replied. "That's what those primarily white memories are called. They're mainly that color because they're _your_ memories, Riley. I mean, well, they're _all_ your memories, you know, but—"

"We get it," Anger grumbled.

"Well _someone's_ a perky ball of sunshine today," Paula joked, grinning as Anger rolled his eyes in irritation.

Disgust smirked in amusement at Anger's reaction.

Riley couldn't help but feel intrigued. So that's what those white memories were called. Soul memories. Representing her capacity for all emotions here in her dream-body. The thought made Riley smile. No console to control her here!

"Can I see the soul memories?"

"Luckily for you, you landed near the Mi-section!" Paula exclaimed, helping Bobby to pick up the memories that had fallen from the cart. "The Mind World Visit memories are right over this way!"

With the group following, after a few twists and turns the mixture of colorful memories suddenly changed. After that corner turn, among the memories that were a mixture of colors was a practical wall-full of sparkling white memories. As Riley looked closer, she could see some colors of the five emotions mixed into the center, to show which feeling was predominant, but they all bore that white ethereal shade.

Everyone gasped in awe.

Riley tilted her head upward to see the shelves towering above her, their white glow illuminating the path and even reflecting off some of the memories on the other side.

It filled Riley with even more pride to see them up there, their prescence shining like a ladder to the heavens that she could climb up. _These memories wouldn't be here if I hadn't touched the console..._

"And don't worry," Paula said, breaking Riley out of her thoughts, "we have plenty of space now for all those memories you might want to store with any future Mind World trips!" she paused. "Well, for a while. We're working on it, we're not sure how many times you'll want to come here..."

Fear looked over at the empty shelves that stood adjacent to the shelves of soul memories, frowning. "So are you just gonna keep pushing over everything to add more shelves if that's needed?"

Anger groaned, rolling his eyes. "Oh great, now we'll have to deal with more scatterbrained stuff every time Riley comes here!"

"Not necessarily," Bobby said with a grin, "because when those shelves run out if extension doesn't work, we came up with another idea!"

"And construction's being planned out for it right now if we do decide to go with it!" Paula added, grinning at Bobby.

Disgust looked down at them. "So what's this reconstruction project plan?"

"Well, we could have a separate Long Term storage just for the soul memories," Bobby replied, then frowned. "Then again, Forgetter Atta did bring up the fact that then there will be two Long Term Memory things to patrol and that could get confusing..."

"It's still up in the air for now, really," Paula shrugged.

"But it is exciting!" Bobby pointed out with a friendly nudge.

"And those new memories give such a new light to the place!" Paula then paused, squinting her eyes as she noticed a memory just outside the section of soul memories that had faded in color. "Oh, seems we got a faded one right here, no sense keeping it on the shelf—"

"Wait!"

Fear flinched, half-thinking Riley was going to try to tackle the Forgetter to retrieve the memory. But instead, much to the relief of him and everyone else, Riley simply gave them a pleading look.

Bobby looked up at her in surprise. "Riley, it's a faded memory, it's just taking up space here."

"But maybe it'll come back to me later," Riley argued, her earlier fears of the Memory Dump still fresh in her mind. "I don't want my memories to just be forgotten and tossed anymore!"

Joy frowned behind her. "Um, Riley, the memories fade on their own, remember? The Forgetters don't control it, it's just how your mind works!"

"But what if it ends up being something important?" Riley asked, looking at the memory now held in Paula's hands. "Like test questions?"

"Not in this case," Paula said. "It's just a memory of you trying to help your mom mince vegetables when you were three. No big deal."

"I kept trying to tell Joy it was a bad idea!" Fear argued, remembering that day well. "I was worried you'd cut your finger if you got within feet of that knife! And when you were that little that was a lot of distance!"

Riley paused, looking carefully at the faded memory. The colors were like in an aged film, and the sound was muffled, but Riley could still see her three-year-old self setting at the table and watching her mom cut up vegetables into tiny portions.

"I... I remember this," the 12-year-old said, staring at the memory more intently. "I was watching her cutting on the vegetables and I wanted to help because it looked fun..."

And then she nearly dropped the memory as something happened that caused everyone to gasp in surprise.

A bit of golden color returned to the memory, the picture becoming clearer. As the color returned, so did the sound.

 _"Mommy, can I help?"_

 _"I can't let you use the knife Riley, but you can watch, okay?"_

"No way..." Joy murmured.

"You revitalized a memory?!" Fear exclaimed, hurrying over with his mouth agape at the color and sound returned to the memory. "T-That's not supposed to happen! I mean, that shouldn't happen—"

"But it did..." Sadness finished.

The Forgetters mouths hung open.

"... Do you think this means we'll be out of a job?" Bobby murmured.

"Of course not!" said Paula. "There's tons of memories here in Long Term that can probably be tossed." She stepped closer to Riley to address her. "But don't worry, we only toss the ones that are faded!" Paula put the newly renewed memory back on the shelf, chuckling a little. "Seems this one's got maybe another year or so of shelf-life left now."

"Yeah!" added Bobby as he placed his notepad on top of the cart "Of course there was that one day last year where a recall tube Joy here was using broke and whole sections of perfectly good memories fell into the Memory Dump—"

" _ **WHAT?**_ " The look on Riley's face as she shouted the word was equivalent to Fear when he watched the scariest movie he had ever seen.

The two Forgetters stumbled back in shock, glancing at the emotions. Anger looked like he wanted to pound them, Fear frantically mimed a throat-slicing motion at his neck, and the others had expressions that pleaded that this wouldn't get worse and not to spill anymore as to what happened that day.

"I-It was a hectic day!" Bobby quickly said. "We couldn't exactly stop—"

"Did you get them back?" Riley asked, wide-eyed.

"Well, uh, no," Paula admitted, not looking Riley in the eyes (which was difficult to do in the first place given the height difference between them). "Nothing ever comes out of the—"

"So you just let them disappear down there?" Riley's voice was a bit quieter now. Not low or threatening, but shocked. "There are memories that might have been important to me that were just zapped out of my consciousness?"

"Riley, it's okay," Sadness said as she tried to step closer to Riley, though she was unsure if the girl could even hear her. "You still have most of your memories."

"All things considered, we didn't have a choice!" Paula said quickly. "A lot fell, and we didn't exactly have ladders or stairs, and the Personality Islands were crumbling and—"

"Wait, _what_?"

The emotions froze. Fear's body went rigid, the nerve nearly falling over like a stick as he nearly fell against Anger, the latter emotion too focused on the situation to punch him in retaliation.

"Huh?" Bobby looked up at Riley with a perplexed expression of his own. "Wait, you mean they didn't tell you yet?"

"I would have thought they would," Paula said with a frown. "I mean, after everything that happened, I thought..."

Riley's expression slowly turned from the pair of Forgetters to the quintet of emotions. The Forgetters implying a disaster had happened, Fear mentioning the possibility of her being "apathetic again", Stratus in Cloud Town mentioning how his neighbors had gone through chaos a year ago, Fear mentioning anything or anyone fallen into the Memory Dump vanished... she had a feeling it was all connected somehow.

"Guys... what are they talking about?"

All the emotions looked at Riley guiltily, then at each other. The Forgetters stepped back a bit, realizing that this was something the emotions had to share with her. After all, the five emotions knew much more about the more intimate going-ons of that day than they did.

The emotions knew they couldn't keep skirting around what had happened. As much as they were anxious that the truth would effect how Riley saw them as friends and even family, there was no more hiding it now.

After a moment of silence, and a knowing look shared among her companions, Joy stepped forward. After all, she was the leader, and it had been her fault in the first place. It was only right that she was the first to confess.

"Riley," she sighed, "we have... a bit of a confession to make."

"And you might not like it," Sadness admitted, coming up to stand beside Joy and take her hand.

Riley looked carefully at them, meeting the solemn expressions on their faces. She took a deep breath, sensing the weight of what they were about to tell as if it hung in the air and was pressing on all their shoulders. "Okay... what is it?" she asked, her tone a bit worried. Based on what the Forgetters had just said, and what she recalled from earlier, the 12-year-old human had a strong feelings that she was, indeed, not going to like it.

Joy looked up at Riley, meeting her eyes. She _really_ hoped that when the cat was finally out of the bag, Riley wouldn't hate them. "Remember when you moved to San Francisco?"

Riley slowly nodded.

"... We had a lot going on in here."

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, seems like the Forgetters might have blurted out a bit too much, and now next chapter will finally be where The Story comes into play.**

 **Also, thanks to Eric the Loony for coming up with the name for the white memories back in his review of Chapter 7. :)**

 **Thanks for r** **eading and being patient for having this chapter be out a bit later than normal, and remember to review! And see you next chapter when the story is revealed to Riley...**


	16. The Story of a Girl

**A/N:** **Finally back, everyone! Well, after delays of writer's block, most importantly wanting to get all the details in, and getting into one of my new favorite shows (Gravity Falls, it's awesome!)... this is it, the moment where Riley finally hears The Story. What will happen? How will Riley react? I won't keep you waiting anymore, let's get this much-longer-than-I-expected chapter underway!**

* * *

Joy's words automatically set Riley on edge, and she was aware that this was likely clear all over her face. The thought that something had happened to the Mind World, that it had perhaps fallen into disrepair during those turbulent first days in San Francisco, didn't exactly conjure up the most comforting imagery in the world. She fought it back, well aware that if she dwelled on such possibilities for too long and allowed them to manifest, they would be made real in Imagination Land. And if they spread like a hazardous poison through the world that she had come to love almost more than the Outside...

Instantly knowing this would likely result in such unfortunate outcomes as potential heartbreak and rage, Fear quickly put his hands up and stepped forward. "Uh, we really ought to go back to Headquarters before we tell you," he said quickly. "Just in case you, you know, get totally mad or shocked and that breaks the lucid dream—ow!" The nerve-like emotion rubbed his arm where Anger had just punched him.

Growing even more wary, increasingly anxious to what she might hear, Riley nodded in agreement.

With a quick goodbye to Paula and Bobby (who looked a mixture of relieved that Riley wouldn't verbally tear them anymore for not saving her fallen memories and increasingly worried at the verbal beating her emotions might get), Riley and her emotions headed down the paths back to the ladder to board the Train of Thought once more.

* * *

The ride back to Headquarters passed in near complete silence, Riley mainly focusing her thoughts on driving upward. There were times during the trek where she chanced a glance back at her emotions, but more often than not, a flash of guilt crossed their faces.

And Riley couldn't help but feel further apprehension every time she noticed, increasingly anxious as to what she might learn. Those first few days of the move, as Riley dwelled on it, had been tumultuous for her. If she had felt like that Outside, Inside must have been even worse!

Riley had a feeling of guilt cross her mind again. What if her actions had hurt them? But then why would it seem like there was something _they_ needed to confess? Were they just afraid that they'd heard Riley's feelings, or was there something more to it than that?

It was a mystery. A mystery that Riley was almost afraid to solve.

As the Train of Thought pulled up to the side of Headquarters,Riley stopped the train and gestured for everyone to go inside. All of them noticed the clear worry on her face as they passed by.

The lighting in Headquarters was as welcoming as it had ever been for Riley, but she wasn't quite as comforted as before. If the others had insisted so strongly on coming back here before the story was told, they must have thought it was something she'd find so terrible that she might retreat into REM sleep as a form of defense.

Joy glanced at the pink couch where the emotions would sit when watching something as Riley did on TV. "Riley... you may want to sit down."

Riley nodded, silently walking over and sinking into the couch's plush surface. The feel was comfortable, but she had a feeling that wouldn't last long as the emotions stood before her like prisoners waiting to be judged.

"... Okay," Riley finally said, taking a deep breath. "What happened?"

The emotions looked at one another, as if silently conversing among themselves as to who should start the story. But finally, Joy stepped forward, and anything the others were going to say died before the words could be voiced.

"For the first 11 years of your life, you had almost always been such a happy girl, and I guess that was mainly my doing." Joy's eyes shone with a clear guilt that Riley didn't fully yet understand. "You remember how a lot of the memories in Long Term were yellow?"

Riley nodded.

"I wanted you to be happy all the time," Joy explained. "I understood that the other emotions had their purposes, like keeping you safe and all that, but..." here she glanced at Sadness. "I felt like Sadness didn't really have any place here. She just seemed to make you cry and that's it."

Riley bit her lip. She didn't like feeling sad a lot, but she knew at least that expressing those feelings brought comfort when it was needed. "So you used to suppress her?"

Anger looked like he was about to speak up, but Joy spoke first.

"I... I tried to keep her from touching the console whenever I thought she was just being a nuisance," Joy admitted shamefully, glancing down a bit at the stunned expression on Riley's face. "I was a bit of a control freak,"

"A _bit_?" Anger muttered before Disgust nudged him.

The yellow emotion didn't like admitting that, but Anger was never one to sugarcoat things. "Okay, so I was pretty much a control freak. The console was only really big enough for one of us to give input at a time, and most of the time I tried to to take that place." She glanced backwards over to the core memories. "Even the core memories you used to have were all yellow."

"Used to have?" Riley echoed with a frown. Worry flickered across her face immediately, remembering what Paula and Bobby had said about thousands of clear memories having fallen into the Memory Dump. "Did... did those old core memories fall into the dump?"

"Not exactly," Fear murmured, hoping that would alleviate Riley's stress at least somewhat. Unfortunately, the wording seemed to lessen Riley's worries only slightly. 'Not exactly' seemed to imply to Riley that something did indeed happen to them.

Joy took a deep breath. "When you first moved to San Francisco," she went on, "it kind of threw us all for a loop. Everything was going so great in your life before that none of us knew how to handle it. I tried to keep everyone positive, but there were some blockades..."

"Like the van being lost and the pizza having broccoli and the house being empty and looking like everything could die in it," Disgusted added, scrunching her nose as the memory. Noticing Riley instantly frown, the green emotion quickly tried to make up for her negative points. "T-That was just a first impression, though."

"Yeah, it's way better now!" Joy added with a grin. "The house is nice, Pizza Planet's around—"

"Joy..."

The quiet mention of her name caused Joy to stop as she turned to the speaker. Sadness gave her a meaningful look, an urging not to try to delay this. Every moment she tried to avoid the confession at this point would only make things worse.

The emotions noticed the small smile on Riley's face begin to fade. Clearly she was becoming more afraid of what she'd hear.

"Right, okay," Joy said quickly before slowing down a bit on her speech. "So then Mom told you that you should stay happy for them, and that only convinced me more that I was the right emotion in charge. And I was determined to make sure your first day of school was a great one."

"But it wasn't." Riley sat up straighter, her hands in her lap, looking at Joy in particular. "That was one of the worst school days I ever had."

The words stung. Even though that memory had lost its core status over time, the memory seemed just as strong for Riley now as if it had happened yesterday. The 12-year-old didn't necessarily look angry at Joy, but confused and worried. If Joy had been so determined to make the day great, why had it gone so terribly?

"Well," Joy said, finally choosing her words, "that morning I gave everyone a job. Fear in charge of going over your fears—"

"Still got that list in my room," Fear added.

"—Disgust was in charge of clothing, I had Anger unload daydreams, I was at console command, and I had Sadness, well..."

She glanced at the blue emotion, who silently urged her to go ahead.

Joy nodded and spoke again, her expression and posture akin to a little kid who was trying to avoid saying they stole from the cookie jar. "I just confined Sadness to a 'Circle of Sadness' and had her read the mind manuals."

"Wait, what?"

"I didn't want her to have any input on that day!" Joy frantically tried to explain. "I wanted to make sure everything went right for you..."

For a moment, Riley looked like she wasn't sure what to say, but she shifted her position on the couch. Letting her legs hang over the side, she looked seriously at Joy, knowing there had to be more to it. After all, everything certainly _didn't_ go right that day. "So what happened?"

"... I think Sadness had better tell this part," Joy said after a moment. The yellow emotion stood back a bit, nodding at her blue friend.

"Joy, are you s—"

But a nod from the yellow emotion was all Sadness needed. "You had a reason for doing what you did."

After a hesitant pause, Sadness took a step forward, though still staying close to Joy. "A memory of you playing hockey was recalled when you were introducing yourself to the class. It was a happy memory, but... I felt compelled to touch it so that it would turn sad."

Riley's eyes widened, her expression not angry, just confused. "Why'd you do that?"

"Your mind was crying out for help," Sadness explained. "It wanted me to touch the memories so you could express what you were really feeling."

Riley's expression relaxed somewhat into one of understanding, settling a little more into the couch.

In that moment, and not for the first time in her life, Joy couldn't help but envy Riley. With Sadness explaining why she had done that, Riley hadn't tried to push away what Sadness had done, or gotten angry at her for it. She realized that what Sadness had done really was what she had needed.

 _Why couldn't I have been more like that?_ the yellow emotion thought.

Sadness continued. "When Joy and the others tried to change the memory back, I pressed the console so I could help you cry." The blue emotion wrung her hands together. "It created a core memory just before I was pulled away from the console, and then Joy tried to stop it."

Joy frowned behind her, remembering that all too well.

"I tried to get it back from her when Joy called the recall tube to send it back, but we accidentally knocked all the core memories out of the holder and..." She glanced back at Joy before turning to Riley again. "Both of us got sucked up the recall tube, and all the core memories."

Riley's mouth dropped open, all semblance of any sort of relaxation gone as she sat up straight. "You mean you guys got sucked out of Headquarters?"

The two emotions nodded.

"Then just the three of us were left," Fear added. "It was awful, we couldn't have you feel happy or sad and it was all a mess! And since all the core memories were gone, the Personality Islands weren't running anymore! They all went dark!"

Riley stiffened, the mental imagery of all those brilliant islands stopping like a switch had been flicked not the best scenario to come to mind. "So that's why I felt like there was something I had lost after that," Riley said quietly. Her gaze fixated on Joy and Sadness in particular. "You guys weren't in Headquarters and the Islands were down..."

"Yeah, so we were left to run things by ourselves!" Anger said. "We had to get you through your classes, not making eye contact—"

"—walking down the middle of the hallway so no lockers would fall on you—" added Fear.

"—ignoring the pastel yellow-and-green walls—" chimed in Disgust.

"What happened with you guys though?" Riley asked, wincing as she looked at Joy and Sadness.

"Well," Joy said hesitantly, "the recall tube took me and Sadness into a bin that had a lot of other memories, and I had to quickly make sure I gathered all the core memories. Then Sadness pointed out that without me, you couldn't be happy. And if there was one thing I knew for sure then, it was that you needed to be happy. So I tried to convince Sadness to go back across the lightline of Goofball Island to get back to Headquarters, but..." she closed her eyes for a moment. "That was when Goofball Island started to break down."

"What?" Riley looked understandably alarmed at hearing that. "W-Why?"

"Without a core memory, if something happens that would cause an Island to run, no matter how small it is, it breaks down!" Fear exclaimed. "Dad went upstairs to try to help you feel better after that blow-up at dinner—"

"He deserved it," Anger muttered.

"Mom and Dad were trying to help!" Fear argued.

"Point is," Disgust interjected, "dinner was a disaster."

Amongst her bewilderment at what she was hearing, Riley held up a hand before she leaned forward. "Wait, you said that was at dinner, but Sadness and Joy seemed to just try to get back when that happened, but they left during first period at school—"

"Time differences," Sadness offered. "I read about it in the manuals. Everything in Headquarters is needed for immediate responses, but since stuff outside it is processing, sometimes time seems to pass differently."

"So what felt like minutes to us was hours out there," Joy added, clearly muddling over how if she had realized this earlier, she probably would have flipped out.

Riley looked visibly worried at this. "In that case, I guess regardless it was a good thing we came back here."

The other murmured their agreement.

"And if that wasn't enough," Anger scowled, "you were talking to Meg, she got that new hockey friend, and BOOM! There went Friendship Island." Anger's fists clenched.

Riley cringed, remembering that all too well. After a moment though, her expression reflected not the anger she had felt at Meg a year ago, but rather guilt. "I acted pretty bad to her then, huh?"

"What's it matter?" Anger pointed out. "Meg got a well-deserved earful that night, and Friendship Island's way better these days with Ann and Jordan and all your other friends!"

"And you still talk to Meg sometimes," Sadness pointed out, offering one of her rare smiles.

Riley managed a smile back.

Joy went on, trying to at least bring a little more cheer back into the situation and feeling that Riley smiling now was at least a great start. "So when I tried to rush through Long Term Memory after we saw Goofball and Friendship go down, I learned that Sadness, being the mind manual expert that she is—"

Sadness's cheeks tinted slightly at the compliment.

"—actually knew the way through Long Term Memory," Joy continued with a gentle grin at Sadness. "But she felt too sad to walk so I dragged her along and she told me which way to go."

Riley's face softened in sympathy. "Didn't that hurt?"

"It actually felt kinda nice," Sadness admitted, managing a smile.

Joy reached over and held Sadness's hand. "I thought that with her help, we'd get back to Headquarters before morning, but then you woke up, and we were still in Long Term, and honestly I was beginning to wonder if Sadness actually knew the way or not... no offense, Sadness."

"None taken, Joy."

"So unfortunately we were still in Long Term by the time you woke up," Joy went on, "and I found out that Sadness had kept touching memories the whole time I was dragging her."

"They were calling for me to turn them sad," Sadness pointed out.

"Well at least I know that now," Joy said, her regret clear in her voice. "If I had a time machine and more tendencies like Anger, I'd smack myself for not listening."

"Hey!"

"It wasn't really your fault though," Sadness pointed out, squeezing Joy's hand. "I didn't really tell you what was going on..."

She trailed off as she noticed Riley staring at them.

"So anyway, after we ran into Paula and Bobby for the first time and they sent that gum commercial up to Headquarters—"

"Why didn't you?"

Joy paused and looked at Riley. "Huh?"

"Couldn't you have just asked them to do that with the core memories?" She looked almost disappointed with Joy, like she in part wanted to put blame on her for not helping fix things that way. "That would have restored the Islands and settled things until you got back, right?"

"It's not exactly that simple, Riley," Disgust said. "Even if we _had_ gotten the core memories back, they're mainly powered by the influence of the emotion that created them. They were all yellow, and without Joy around, they wouldn't really have worked as well."

"Or at all," Fear piped up worriedly. "The core memory holder might have just spat the memories back out at us like during hockey."

Riley arched her brow.

"We're getting there."

Riley sank down into the couch a little, the disappointment in her gaze lessened. "I guess you have a point." She appeared pensive for a moment. "So the Islands wouldn't have really been able to work so well because Joy wasn't there?"

"Pretty much," Fear admitted. He looked back at the core memory holder that now held those memories of many colors. "If it happened the way it is now it wouldn't be so bad."

Riley understood. Seeing as there was purple, red, and green present in several of those memories, if the same situation had happened right now, the three remaining emotions wouldn't be at a complete loss. With no Joy, the core memory holder and the islands rejected that input. "That makes sense..."

Joy continued. "So after talking to the Forgetters, I saw someone taking memories from the shelves, so I started chasing after him. And when Sadness and I finally caught up to him, I recognized that it was Bing Bong." She gave Riley a look that harbored a pain that surprised Riley. "He was your old imaginary friend, so we offered to take him back to Headquarters with us."

Riley opened her mouth to ask about him, but then fell silent. Seeing as Bing Bong wasn't here now, and they name only rang a slight bell to her, she realized that something must have happened to him. "What was he like?" Riley leaned forward, paying strict attention and hoping that there would be some job in her memory.

Joy and Sadness looked at one another.

"... He was a pink elephant made of cotton candy," Joy finally said, "but he had dog ears, a pink-and-purple cat tail, orange-and-yellow striped legs, green eyes that always had this playfulness... he cried candy..." Her voice grew more saddened the more she talked.

"And he really cared about you," Sadness added. "He would do anything for you. Anything as long as it would help you be happy."

There was a heavy silence present in the air, and Riley herself felt almost like the melancholy atmosphere was so strong it could take on a physical form. She already had a strong feeling that this was going to end badly. But she knew that they had to continue onward.

After a moment, Joy continued. "So after giving us his limitless bag that I was able to put the core memories in, Bing Bong gave us the idea to go catch the Train of Thought in Imagination Land, but in order to do that he wanted us to go through Abstract Thought."

Riley's eyes widened, remembering what she had heard about it. "Why'd you go through there? I thought it was dangerous!"

"It would take too long to go around Long Term more, and the chamber was off at the time," Joy said quickly. "I thought it was our best shot, but..."

"But they turned it on when we were in there, and we all started falling apart," Sadness said, taking over as Joy trailed off. "Then we became two-dimensional, then non-figurative so we were just blobs and lines..."

Fear stood back, biting his nails even though he knew they got out okay since they were standing right in front of him.

"And then you had that idea to fall on your face," Joy finished, giving Sadness a small grin. However, it faded. "Unfortunately, the Train of Thought sped away just as we got there, so Bing Bong suggested we go through Imagination Land instead. We saw Trophy Town, Cloud Town, the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator, then we were about to go through Preschool World..."

Riley's brow arched in confusion. "I don't remember that."

"That's because they tore it down while we were there," Sadness said quietly. "They added expansions into Storybook Land where it used to be."

"Oh..."

"But just as we were about to go in," the blue emotion continued, "we heard a loud boom and we turned and... we saw Hockey Island go down."

Riley inhaled sharply, her mind going over what had happened that day. "Hockey tryouts?"

"Yeah," Anger grumbled. "Fear tried to recall every hockey memory to work in place of a core memory, but zap! No luck, all they did was bash us in the face!"

"It almost worked!" Fear protested.

"But just like we said earlier, no Joy, no fully-working memories," Disgust chimed in. "Plus, they weren't core memories."

"And that day of school didn't even go so well for us on top of the Hockey thing," Anger added as he crossed his arms. "Fear _said_ I shouldn't have had you blow up in computer class but that rainbow spinny wheel of doom was—"

"Wait, that was _you_?" Riley looked like she was about to stand up. "Everyone avoided me for the rest of the day thanks to that, and I already had enough problems!"

Anger automatically knew he had made a mistake. He hadn't even gotten to the Worst Decision Ever and already Riley was mad! "Hey, I prompted you, you did! It's not my fault you were volatile!"

"Anger!" Disgust exclaimed.

Riley didn't look too pleased at hearing that.

"What, it's true, _she_ blew up at it, _I_ just gave her a little push! It's not _my_ fault she couldn't feel happy or sad!"

"Guys!"

The emotions stopped arguing and looked at Riley, who had one hand held up and looked distinctly less calm than before. Already this was bad news—if she reacted this way when that little mishap at school was brought up... how would she react to running away?

Riley took a deep breath. "Just... keep going."

"Okay..." Joy paused, seeming to have lost her train of thought. "Um, where was I..."

"Hockey Island falling and Preschool World."

"Oh, yeah. So since that happened, I was really determined to head to that next train station as soon as possible, so we went through Preschool World. Okay, we started to, but the workers were tearing it all down. And they tossed what they were getting rid of into the Memory Dump..."

Riley visibly shuddered at the thought.

"... including the song-powered wagon that you and Bing Bong used to ride in," the blue emotion went on. "Then Bing Bong started to cry, and then... I talked to him and helped him feel better."

"Because you listened," Riley added on.

For a moment, all five of the emotions looked silently at Riley, before Joy smiled. She shook her head, letting out a sheepish, almost forced laugh. "Riley, even you could go back in time and smack some sense into past-me."

Riley cracked a smile, laughing a bit as well. And as tense as the situation seemed with the anxiety of what was left in the story, that smile brought a little ease to everyone in the room.

Even if the emotions knew it wouldn't be there for long.

Joy took her turn in resuming the story. "Just after that, the Train of Thought pulled up, and we started riding it until the sky went dark and the train stopped. Since you fell asleep, the drivers were going on break. So then Sadness got the idea to go to Dream Productions to wake you up."

"And the dream they used to wake you up was scary!" Fear exclaimed. "I mean, first it started out kind of okay with you not wearing pants, then a talking dog showed up and split in half—"

"That was us," Sadness explained.

But Fear was on a roll with the description. "—Then Bing Bong showed up and said hi, then Rainbow Unicorn did some dance thing, then Jangles the Clown showed up—"

Riley looked visibly uncomfortable at that. "I remember Jangles..."

"We, uh, brought him up from the Subconscious," Joy said with a tentative raise of her hand. "The guards took Bing Bong down there and then got us, so we had to rescue him and then got the idea to bring Jangles up to Dream Productions to help scare you awake."

"What's the Subconscious?" Riley asked, shifting a little as if the thought of whatever the Subconscious was gave her goosebumps

"It's where they keep your darkest fears," Sadness explained.

While the discomfort on Riley's face had started to lessen, the realization of what the Subconscious was didn't help and only brought it back.

"So then," Fear went on, "I helped wake you up and then Anger complained and we decided to go with his plan and put the idea in your head to run away—"

" _WHAT?!_ "

Fear shut up immediately.

Riley immediately sat up straighter on the couch, her eyes narrowing firmly. and looking about twice as angry as she had about the computer class mess. She looked as horrified as if they had just revealed that they had killed a mind worker. "Wait, _you_ put that idea in my head to run away?!"

Joy felt as if her heart was beginning to crack. The mixture of anger, fear, disgust, and betrayal all shone like a spotlight in Riley's entire demeanor. A horrible flash of realization lit up Joy's own mind as she thought that here, at this moment, she was seeing a sort of manifestation of every bit of turmoil Riley had gone through in those few days.

Fear looked as if he were going to faint right then and there, frantically trying to come up with some sort of defense. "A-Anger thought it was the only way! I didn't want to do it at first and I suggested we sleep on it in the first place—"

"But you went with along with it eventually!" Riley argued, standing up and towering over them like an angry giant.

Anger put his hands up, like a criminal having been caught, the glare in Riley's eyes almost like a physical force pushing him back. "Hey, hey, Riley, remember what we said before. _You_ act on the ideas, don't blame us!"

Riley's fists clenched, her gaze harboring a mixture of anger, disgust and, for an instant, fear. "But I wouldn't have _had_ the idea if you haven't given it to me in the first place!"

"You read up on it at the library—" Fear tried to interject, holding his hands up but looking like he would hide behind the others at a moment's notice.

"But it was still a horrible decision!" Riley shot back, closing her eyes, her hands balling into fists.

"Even if Anger was the one who called up the memory about Mom's credit card that then broke Honesty Island," Disgust said.

"He did _what?!_ "

"Hey, don't paint me as the bad guy! And we tried to get that out of your head later!"

"Why didn't you just use the intercom to try to talk me out of it?!"

"It wasn't installed back then!"

"No wonder I didn't feel like I had anyone to help then! It was just me making a stupid decision!"

"Hey, Anger had the idea first and we went with it!" Fear said quickly, trying to find some way to be the mediator.

"No, _**I**_ went with it!"

"It wasn't your fault..." Sadness said quietly, trying to say something to placate Riley.

However, that seemed to do the exact opposite. It was then that Riley whirled down at her, at all of them, a fire in her eyes—if she had Anger's abilities, no doubt flames on her head would be burning to blue and white. In fact, they thought they saw her outline become a bit more fuzzy, just for a moment. " _ **YES. IT. WAS!**_ "

Everyone stopped, just staring up at Riley as if she had snapped their heads up by force and frozen time in the process. Riley's fists were clenched, her eyes closed, her body shaking... and she was crying.

The tears were barely visible at first, pinpricks of water at the rims of her eyelids. Then they slowly became rivers of water that flowed down her face. She was trembling once more, but no longer with only anger, as the rage that propelled her to stand rapidly went away. She slowly sunk to the floor, kneeling down to the level of her emotions before she rest her head on her knees, her cries more audible as she turned her head downward.

After a few moments, Joy sat down beside Riley. Her shoulders were slumped, and when Joy tried to place a comforting hand on Riley's shoulders, she could feel the 12-year-old trembling under her embrace, her hands now fallen at her sides. A moment later, Sadness joined them.

For several moments they sat there, Riley just being comforted as much as she could by her two emotion companions. Finally, she spoke through her cries.

"I... _I_ was the one who really acted on the idea.." she murmured, trying to wipe her eyes. "I just... I should have... I-I shouldn't have run away..."

"But..." Fear started, "we put the idea—"

"Yeah, but I was the one who ran away," Riley pointed out, opening her eyes. "Y-You guys aren't me... _I_ acted, not you... I mean, yeah, you sort of did, but..."

The emotions glanced at each other as Riley continued to cry. They understood now that her outburst wasn't really from a hatred of them—well, she was angry at them, but it was something deeper than that. A large part of those negative feelings were directed toward herself in her firm insistence that she was not her emotions.

Riley glanced over at the yellow emotion, Joy's blue eyes almost seemed to shine with tears as well.

"We... we eventually helped make everything okay again," Joy finally said.

As Riley looked at her, the one word she spoke seemed to radiate off Riley as if she had turned it into a physical force: "How?"

Joy glanced over at Riley's other side, where Sadness was sitting next to her and gently rubbing the human girl's hand. The yellow emotion caught her companions eye.

Sadness took the hint. If she wanted to take her turn to tell the story, now could be her turn. Sadness took it.

"After that, we got on the Train of Thought since it was moving again, and it seemed like things were actually going kind of okay for once," Sadness said. "We found a memory of you with the twisty tree, when Mom and Dad and your hockey team came to help you after the playoffs... that one's my favorite."

"Mine too," Joy added.

Riley sniffed, smiling a little and wiping her nose on her sweater sleeve. The memory had started out sad at first, but it had ultimately ended up happily. Glancing back and forth out of the corners of her eyes, she could tell that the pair of emotions weren't only comforting her, but one another as well.

After a pause, Sadness went on. "Then Honesty Island fell into the Dump, and the train suddenly got all rickety, and it started falling too, so a group of workers pulled us to safety just in time. They told us that you were running away, and then..."

She glanced at Joy. The other emotions, though they knew what had happened, were holding onto every word the pair said.

Joy took over. "We noticed even Family Island was starting to break down too, and it broke part of the shelves of Long Term Memory."

Riley tensed up at that. "That was when all those memories fell into the dump... wasn't it?" she asked quietly.

Joy nodded. "I tried to go up the recall tube on my own, because I thought I could fix everything if you were happy. But Family Island was still crumbling, it broke the recall tubes and several more of the shelves. I fell from the chute, Bing Bong tried to catch me, and... Bing Bong and I..." Joy's shoulders slumped for a moment before she looked straight at Riley. "... We fell into the Memory Dump."

"... _What?_ " The word came out as barely a breath. The horrified look on Riley's face almost completely took over her frustration at the running away plan, her body stiffening like she had just been shocked.

"I thought about throwing myself down there too," Sadness said morosely, causing Riley to turn to her with that equally horrified look. "But then I just decided to run to Long Term Memory where no one would ever find me..."

Riley looked then like she had frozen up like Fear did at some points, and for a second they thought that the lucid dream might break. But Riley remained, shocked but very much still present in the Mind World.

Joy in particular couldn't help but feel a powerful guilt pang at her heart, even though her and Bing Bong falling into the dump hadn't directly been her doing. Riley had clearly mentally suffered from what she had heard and seen relating to the Memory Dump. In fact, it seemed almost as if it had nearly traumatized her. This _definitely_ wasn't helping.

The yellow emotion felt as if everything she said next might cause Riley to suddenly wake up in fear, but she knew at the same time she had to continue. "We fell down there, and I kept trying to frantically climb up, but every time I kept slipping down. Then Bing Bong told me that we were stuck down there and forgotten, and... I saw old memories around us fading away." Joy took a deep breath. "Memories that I remember clearly but you've forgotten..." She exhaled, managing to look at Riley with a sad smile. "Remember how you stuck your tongue out when coloring? Or you'd tell your stories to ladybugs?"

Riley shook her head. "N-No..." The 12-year-old found that she was starting to tear up again. "And all those clear memories that fell into the dump..." She blinked a few times, tears beginning to fall again, "I'm... I'm never going to be able to remember those, am I? They're like holes in my memory that I'll never be able to get back."

Joy nodded sadly, wiping away her own tears. "Looking at all those memories of yours... that was the first time I ever really cried. I didn't think we were ever going to make it out, and you would never be happy again..."

Riley looked carefully at her, the anger from before having dissipated.

"But that was when I found that memory of the twisty tree, and watching it from the beginning, I realized that the reason the team and your parents had helped you feel so good was because they saw you were feeling down. They came to help because of Sadness, and all that time I never realized it..." She swallowed. "That was the moment that I knew we had to try to get back up there, and that you needed both of us. We found Bing Bong's song-powered rocket that was tossed down there, and we both started singing the song you made up about him to propel us upward."

"H-How'd the song go?" Riley asked, frowning further as Sadness had started to cry next to her. Maybe, if she couldn't truly remember him, she could at leat keep part of his memory alive, so to speak.

The yellow emotion smiled sadly, singing quietly. " _Who's your friend who likes to play?_ _Bing Bong, Bing Bong...'_ Joy started to tear up a little as she sang, _"_ _His rocket makes you yell 'Hooray'!_ _Bing Bong, Bing Bong..._ _Who's the best in every way?_ _And wants to sing this song to say..."_

Riley, able to guess what was coming, sang the next words along with her, though Joy put emphasis on the last syllable.

 _"Bing Bong, Bing BONG..."_

Riley fought to remember a younger version of herself singing that song, but if anything was there, it was too fuzzy to make out.

After noticing the look on despondent longing on Riley's face, Joy went on. "He and I kept singing and trying to get to the top, but no luck, until the last time. Bing Bong said he had a good feeling about it, and told me to sing louder. I sang as loud as I could and felt so happy that we both made it until..." she sighed. "Until I realized we both didn't. He had jumped off and stayed behind in the Memory Dump, urging me to go and save you..."

Sadness was struggling to contain her sobs now in memory of her fallen friend, now wiping her nose with some tissues that Fear had quickly raced to get for them.

"Then he looked up at me," Joy said, "and he told me... 'Take her to the moon for me, okay?'... and then..." she looked at Riley regretfully, the young human girl gasping quietly, "I watched him fade as I promised him that I would try to. Those were the last words he ever said to me, except when I... when I dream about him..."

Sadness passed the box of tissues to Riley, who in turn passed it to Joy.

"Thanks, Sadie," Joy murmured. She fought back any more tears. "I knew after that I had to find Sadness and get us both back to Headquarters, and if I didn't Bing Bong's sacrifice would have been for nothing." She recalled how everything had seemed so desolate when she raced to find Sadness. "Everything seemed like it was breaking apart, part of me wondered that if Family Island fell, what would be next?"

"Probably Headquarters."

The trio of girls on the couch looked up toward the speaker, Anger. He, as well as the other two, had similar expressions of regret and "Please don't hate us," written in their faces.

Anger sighed. "It was chaos up here when you were getting on the bus, and with all the islands going down, I'm pretty sure there was a shake or two of Headquarters as well."

The sorrow that Riley felt was against mixed with anger and fear. The thought of her emotions, Headquarters, everything falling into the Memory Dump...

What would happen to her if that had happened? Who would she be?

Riley didn't want to think about it.

"We started to realize it was a bad idea after Mom called like, fifteen times," Disgust added, her hands folded in front of her, "but then the console started getting this tar-y black look and we couldn't get the idea out no matter how hard we tried.

Sadness's eyes widened a little. "That's the first stage of Gloom."

Riley glanced at her, her expression still a mix of feelings. "Gloom?"

"It's a force that takes over when the host begins to refuse any input from Headquarters," Sadness admitted. "It was in the manuals."

Riley looked down, mulling over how she had felt in that moment. "That explains why I felt... well... nothing."

The others slowly nodded.

"Good thing it didn't get worse," Anger pointed out. "Yellow and blue here got back just in time."

"H-How—"

"Sadness was floating away on a cloud from Imagination Land," Joy said, "so I used that Imaginary Boyfriend generator to clone a bunch of them before using them as a springboard to Family Island. I bounced off the trampoline, reached Sadness, and we both smacked into the windows."

"Then I used Anger as a blowtorch so they could get through," Disgust said.

"Haha, very funny," the aforementioned emotion grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

Joy cleared her throat, and the others fell silent once more. However, she looked to Sadness, indicating that she should be the one to tell this part.

Sadness obliged. "Joy told me that I should be the one to help, and I was able to get that idea out of your heard and the console got its color back. Then you got off the bus and ran back home."

Riley placed her hand on Sadness's hand, a silent gesture of thanks for helping to save her.

Sadness managed a slight smile at Riley as she continued. "When you got home, Joy gave me all the core memories so they could turn blue, and you could express how you really felt. When you opened up and you hugged Mom and Dad, I brought Joy over to the console and we both created a new core memory."

Riley glanced meaningfully over at the core memory holder now. "Family Island?"

There was a collective nod from all of the emotions.

"... So now you know."

Riley turned to look at Joy, whose eyes shone with regret. She then stood from the couch, Sadness following, and soon the quintet of emotions all stood together once more. And one emotion reflected on their faces more than any other.

Guilt.

"The intercom came with the console upgrade we got a year later," Joy concluded.

"We were all acting for our own selfish reasons," Anger admitted.

"Not to mention that black jacket fit your mood, not your style," Disgust quipped.

"You have every right to be angry with us," Sadness added in understanding.

"But please don't hate us!" Fear begged, gripping Sadness and Joy's hands as if prepared to have them be shields. "Please!"

Joy looked at Riley with an expression that the young girl recognized in herself. And the words were an echo of her as well.

"... Please don't be mad..."

Riley stared at them, carefully looking at their expressions. She was mad at them, pretty ticked about the running away thing especially.

And yet...

"... I _do_ feel mad—"

"I knew it!" Fear cried. "You hate us and you're gonna demand the intercom be—"

"But I don't _hate_ you."

Fear blinked, his flailing paused. "Huh?"

Disgust looked at her in surprise. "You don't? I'd hate us if I were you."

"And that's why you're not me."

The emotions looked up at her. And much to their surprise, and immense relief, Riley didn't look like she was about to pull a Godzilla and flatten them all.

"I know it was really bad of you for you guys to try to make me run away," Riley said with a sigh. "But you didn't want me to run away out of spite, just because you though it would help me be happy." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "That was really poor judgement from all of us."

Joy looked up hopefully. "So... does this mean we're still friends?"

Riley then knelt down to their level. "Even though I do feel mad at you guys... yeah." She smiled. "Still friends."

Joy looked like she was about to cry tears of... well, joy. "... Can we hug you?"

"Well, this doesn't change the fact that I'm probably going to ask you to lay off the console control, idea bulbs and bad ideas for a while, but..." Riley forced herself to laugh a little. "Group hug, Team Happy?"

Wiping tears forming at the corners of her eyes, Joy reached Riley in a few steps, hugging her. She was soon followed by Sadness, then Fear, Disgust, and finally Anger.

True, Riley did harbor a mixture of emotions from what she had just learned—some evident, some buried far enough that she hoped she wouldn't confront them much—but she wasn't going to outright reject them. After all, they were her friends, practically her family. She loved them. She loved them and their world, despite the problems and shortcomings and rash decisions.

At the very least, they had helped her get home.

The hug was pretty comforting, but Riley fought against the lucid dream breaking or her waking up. She had to fight it, at least for a little while. She couldn't just let these memories not go to Long Term.

The 12-year-old bit her lip, trying not to appear too pensive. Even though she was anything but.

She didn't hate them. True, she was ticked off, but she didn't hate them. She could never _hate_ them. After all, they only tried to do what they thought was best in the situation (even if the judgement was malformed), and they and the aspects of the Mind World around them all coordinated together to help her. She had to be thankful for that.

They were like family, after all, and here was like a home away from home.

And it was in that moment a thought came to her mind.

She was grateful that it had happened here, in the Mind World, rather than Outside during the day. The emotions would no doubt hear her thoughts then.

Riley didn't want that, she wouldn't _have_ that. Because she had one thing that she'd need to hide from her emotions at all costs if she wanted it to work out properly... _especially_ from Fear. After all, if they didn't find out until the right moment, they couldn't stop her, she could figure things out for herself, and she'd be truly happy.

Riley Andersen had a plan.

 _Two_ plans, actually.

Plans that she believed, if applied correctly and the manuals said were possible, could solve any more mishaps. Or at least make them able to be worked through.

True, Plan A might make things a bit chaotic at times, assuming it was possible, but she could probably handle it if she worked around it. She could work around the shortcomings and understand others more.

If Plan A failed, Plan B would work. Plan B was the failsafe, the last resort.

But for either to work, she'd have to get to those mind manuals first, or at least get the right information. Her prep-plan. And for now, Fear wouldn't let her near them.

 _If I can't go near the manuals... someone else will have to for me._

"Guys?"

The emotions looked up at her, Joy in particular. "Yes, Riley?"

"I want to go to Long Term Memory again," Riley said with new resolve. "I want to try to revitalize some memories."

Joy's heart leapt, daring to believe it since it didn't seem that Riley was going to kick them out of her life. "You mean like Bing Bong?"

Riley nodded. "Or at least see what happens. I might not be able to bring him back like before, but... I can at least see him. And even if it doesn't work... I still want to see more of the Mind World."

True, part of her figured that, if she did try to really revitalize him, it wouldn't really be the same Bing Bong, but a twin built up of both her own faded memories and what she had learned from the emotions. He'd know what Riley did, but it wouldn't be the one who had gone through that adventure and sacrifice with Joy.

Or maybe it _would_ be the same Bing Bong, perhaps if Joy and Sadness touched the memory as well. But Riley knew that if this worked, no matter the outcome, he'd trust her.

Riley knew she'd have to take whatever risk came along. Aside from the Mind Workers, which she maybe could convince, Bing Bong was the only one the emotions might trust to let into Headquarters.

The only one they'd let close to the mind manuals.

"You mean it?"

Riley nodded, a smile beginning to form across her face. "I mean it."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Joy asked, looking like there was hope finally evident in her eyes once more. "Let's go!"

"Wait, hold on a minute..."

The emotions paused as Riley raced over to the console, pressing the button that allowed a memory to be created.

The console lit up with its white color once more, and a slew of memory orbs came flooding into the shelves. All of them were soul memories tinted with white, though a mixture of emotions was evident in many. Anger and Disgust, Fear and Sadness, every moment of the story she heard brought a slew of mixed emotions.

"... I'm still amazed that she can do that," Anger said after a few seconds.

"Hey, how do you send these to Long Term?" Riley called, carefully observing the memories.

"Stand on that button in the center," Joy called.

Searching, Riley surveyed the floor until she found a button close to the projector of the Mind's Eye. Further clinking resounded through headquarters as the soul memories were all sent tumbling through the memory matrix.

Riley looked thoughtful as the memories were sent tumbling out of sight. Even though her feelings toward the emotions had changed somewhat, how could she hate them? How could she hate this amazing landscape they lived in?

"Okay," she said, racing over as the memories continued to cascade. "Let's go."

The group, looking relieved that Riley at least didn't totally kill them, raced outside to the Train of Thought, Riley at the helm. Once she was certain everyone was safely on, Riley focused her thoughts until the Train pulled from Headquarters, heading straight to Long Term.

The train wavered in its movements a little as they traveled to Long Term Memory. Riley's thoughts weren't steady this time.

Fear clung to the side of the train, looking helplessly at Joy and lowering his voice to a whisper. "The train's being all rocky, Riley's still mad at us!"

Joy felt guilt pang at her heart as she chanced a look up at their host. "Riley..."

"We can talk more later." Riley's words were brisk. "I have a lot on my mind right now." _What I learned tonight, what I'll have to face tomorrow.._.

Joy's hopeful demeanor lessened. Bringing back Bing Bong or not, it didn't change the fact that Riley was angry with them for what had happened.

But what sped through Riley's thoughts most, what made the train ride so rocky, wasn't just the truth she had learned about her emotions and those days in San Francisco. It was her idea.

It was risky. It was potentially dangerous. It was, in some ways, dishonest.

And the moment that thought crossed her mind, Riley stiffened, expecting to her a terriflying crack from outside as Honesty Island took a further hit to her psyche. But she relaxed as no catastrophic rumble came.

 _I'm lucid in the Mind World,_ she told herself, beginning to relax. _I'm not linked to the Islands here unless I want to be—wait..._ her eyes widened. _I created Possibility Island when I was here. If I can do that then the Islands are still linked to me in some..._

As if right on cue, a crumbling noise was heard. From outside.

The emotions raced to look out of the edge of the train.

And Fear screamed. "What's going on with Honesty Island?!"

Riley swallowed, daring to take a peek herself. The light that illuminated the island at night was flickering, and as she squinted, more cracks in the Temple of Truth could be seen.

Frozen for a few seconds, the emotions turned to look up at Riley.

"Um, Riley?" Sadness asked, glancing outside once more at the further damage to Honesty Island. "Is there something you're... not telling us?"

The thought of it sent Joy's stomach doing flip-flops. Riley couldn't be hiding something from _them_... could she?

"Do you really hate us after all?" Fear squeaked.

The emotions looked at her, expecting an answer. Though now, like Riley earlier, they were afraid of what they would hear.

Riley took a deep breath, practically able to feel their eyes on her. She had to answer, but she had to be truthful, or her islands would doom her.

She could be truthful and not give away her deepest intentions.

"... I just want to be free," she finally said.

The emotions all looked at each other, having a bad feeling what this meant.

The silence endured for a couple more seconds before Joy decided to end it. "Free... of us?"

Much to their relief, Riley shook her head. "No. Of all my problems."

The quintet looked more relaxed at this, but still concerned.

"Like what problems?" Sadness finally asked.

"... Everyone thinking I'm crazy. Being here at night's my escape."

Sadness looked at her in understanding. "You just want to treasure the time you have here."

"Exactly."

She wasn't being dishonest, and no more damage came to the Island. Everything she had said was true, it just didn't clarify the details. Still honest, still safe.

Riley knew that her plans, if found out, would probably be disapproved by the emotions. Well, Plan A might be excusable. Plan B? No way.

But if it worked, it would allow her to be free. No more problems of miscommunication or mistrust like the move, or what.

As the train sped to the warren of memory shelves, Riley kept her focus straight ahead. But an idea crossed her head, pondering over how some people seemed to send their thoughts to one another. After all, this was literally her mind—shouldn't she be able to try that here as well?

She wasn't sure how much power she had here—after all, she didn't even have to use controls to guide the Train of Thought, and in Imagination Land she had experienced what it was like to fly. Maybe she could do that out here too.

She didn't know her limits. But she figured, in this case, she'd test them.

Riley focused her thoughts behind her like a telepathic message, focusing them just within the cabin of the train. She needed to pick her thoughts carefully.

 _I don't hate you guys._

The emotions looked up.

"Really?" Fear asked. "I mean, the Train's all rickety—"

The surprise that they had heard her nearly broke her thought-focus. But she forced herself to keep it steady.

 _Yeah, I feel shocked and angry, but I don't **hate** you._

"Are you sure?" Fear asked cautiously.

Riley nodded. _I'm sure._

At hearing a few sighs of relief from the emotions, Riley permitted a smile to form at her lips.

 _So far so good,_ she thought, focusing the words nowhere except inside her dream-head. _Now time to test it a bit more..._

Looking backward momentarily, then facing front so as not to give herself away, Riley focused her thoughts further behind her, to just outside the range of the train's cabin. Enough so Fear would likely hear, but no one else.

 _I still want to read the mind manuals._

"Riley, that's really not the best idea."

Anger looked at Fear with a perplexed expression on his face. "What?"

Fear flinched at the glare the red emotion sent his way. "I was just telling Riley she couldn't read the mind manuals or—"

"But she didn't say anything about the mind manuals," Sadness said.

Fear's eyes widened, his hair drooping. "What? I just heard her say it!"

"I think _you're_ being a bit paranoid," Disgust said with a roll of her eyes.

So, that was working. Riley momentarily shut her eyes, speaking aloud this time as she looked back at Fear. "Well, why can't I read the mind manuals?"

"Well, um—"

"After what happened you owe me that much," Riley argued. "Shouldn't that give me less of a chance of getting hurt?"

All the emotions and Riley turned their gazes toward Fear. The purple emotion looked helpless for a moment, his eyes wide and anxious. Finally, he let his eyes close, his arms drooping to his sides.

"I didn't want to say anything," he admitted. "I know how curiosity is, and if I told you you'd just want to read the information anyway, and that could destroy everything—"

"But if I know, I'll know what to be careful for," Riley pleaded. "It's better for me to read something and actually know the risk of it rather than just trying something out willy-nilly if I come across something that's not completely explained."

The jig was up. Fear finally forced himself to meet her eyes. "There's... certain things in the mind manuals," he admitted quietly. "I only looked at them once myself because I found them so terrifying to think of!"

"Like...?" Riley prodded.

The purple emotion took a deep breath. "Like, you know..." He wrung his hands together anxiously. "Changing personality, changing things on the outside, hijacking the console..." He flinched at the thought, racing up to Riley and took her hands in his own trembling ones. "Please, Riley. Please, please tell us you aren't going to just use any of the dangerous stuff willy-nilly that you don't have a full understanding of! Please promise!"

Riley saw the looks on their faces, their eyes widened in worry. She knew they didn't want her to get hurt, and regardless of their actions, regardless of what they had done and her moments of darkest feelings toward them, she knew they cared for her, and she likewise did so for them. She finally looked at them and nodded.

"I promise."

And the promise was true. She wouldn't use the drastic procedures that she didn't understand.

Which was why she wasn't going to be bullheaded and was going to learn everything she could about what would go on.

So her thought focus had worked as long as she kept a firm resolve on where she wanted the thought to go and what she wanted to say. Like a laser of telepathy.

She went over where they were going to go as they headed to Long Term. And then Riley stretched her thoughts outward.

Riley made sure not to direct these thoughts anywhere around the train, not wanting to risk any of the emotions hearing. Fear, especially.

She just had to make her mind work in her favor until she found out what to do.

She weighed her options. If bringing back Bing Bong—or at least a sort of clone-copy of him—wouldn't work—she'd need back-up.

She noticed Possibility Island seem to move a bit more, and her mind whirled with, well, possibilities. Riley knew that what she really imagined, so clearly it could be seen, became a reality for her in Imagination Land. Maybe, if brining a kind of Bing Bong Two into the Mind World didn't work, she could let creations of her imagination take care of the rest.

Some sort of birds that would be able to turn intangible, invisible, and scan the contents of any texts, who would be able to relay the information to her when she returned to the Mind World? Some sort of secondary body that could hack the console? A mind worker who possessed a power of persuasion who the emotions would trust immediately? Maybe even Harry could be useful...

The possibilities cycled through, not quite focusing on each to a full extent just yet to have them manifest in Imagination Land. She'd have to think it over, and be selective.

Somehow, she'd get the knowledge of those mind manuals. Somehow, she'd find a way to figure everything out and alleviate all those problems that were plaguing her head.

Part of her was scared. A trickling of fear buried even deeper than her subconscious.

But if she could make this work in her favor over the next few days... then she'd feel as free as when she had had flown in Imagination Land.

* * *

Out of line of sight of the Train of Thought, far in the distance, the Idea Fields shone as brightly as ever with the multi-colored light bulbs. But now a dark shadow was being cast over it.

Thunder rumbled and lightening flashed, causing the few Mind Workers awake at this hour to look up.

A female Mind Worker looked at her companion uneasily. "A brainstorm? Now?"

"We haven't had one like this before, this looks like an especially strong one..."

This didn't seem like the kind of storm that came when Riley got a flurry of ideas on a normal day. The storm clouds were darker now, filled with a set purpose.

And as thunder rumbled again, the clouds isolated to there alone, the Mind Workers heard a voice that caused them to leap in fright.

Riley's voice.

 _I can't tell the emotions._

"R-Riley?"

 _I can't tell them. I can't give them any hints to what I'm going to do._

There was a pause. Then one more sentence that caused everyone in the general vicinity of the Mind World, everyone outside of the Train. to realize this was very dire for Riley indeed.

 _I have an idea to help me fix my problems with Outside. But I need one thing in order for anything to work._

The Mind Workers fell silent. Those in the Idea Fields, Dream Productions, whoever happened to be awake, looked up.

 _I need to read some **very specific** things in those manuals..._

* * *

Back in the usual residence place of the emotions, the primary light that remained was the light of the core memories, powering the Islands.

Outside Headquarters, Possibility Island was running hard.

And inside Headquarters, no one was around to see the core soul memory flickering in its color.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, now Riley knows the emotional roller coaster of a story. And you thought the story was about to end here? Nope! Consider everything that's happened so far Act 1, actually! What exactly are Riley's little gambits? You'll find out soon enough! And yes, I do already have planned mostly what I'm going to do (especially Plan B if/when it comes to that), so, speculate away with those Wild Mass Guessings, readers and tropers! ;)**

 **Also, as far as the blow up in computer class and the library thing, those are from the Driven By Emotions novelization which tell the film's story from the point of view of the five emotions.**

 **See you guys next chapter!**


	17. A Hole in Her Heart

**A/N: *shouts like Mushu* I LIIIIIVVVEEE!**

 **Haha, now that that's over, I have a few things to say here:** **First off: Thank you all SO much for your patience. So, what were the reasons for the long wait between last chapter and this one? Well, a couple reasons:**

 **1\. Gravity Falls has been taking up a good amount of Fangirl Island's running power. The Inside Out section's finally coming back along with it though.**

 **2\. Doing things in life, hanging out with friends, general life stuff.**

 **And, most of all, 3. Lack of motivation.**

 **Not that I was out of ideas for the story, far, FAR from it. In fact, I pretty much have planned how it's all gonna mostly play out. These next upcoming chapters just kind of had me hit a mental block, seeing that as eager as I was to get to those upcoming chapters, one or two kind of had me feel a general "eh" mindset.**

 **But I've gotten out of that funk now, and hopefully updates will be much more frequent. And I've learned my lesson to properly split up chapters—if I had done so last time the wait wouldn't have seemed near as long.**

 **Also, about the button being used to save a core memory, I got that from the art book too—there was a diagram of the console with a few buttons labeled, so I went with that, though I realized it has some differences to the movie proper. Fixed that now!**

 **Also, for those of you who haven't watched the deleted scenes on DVD, fun fact: in one of the original ideas, back when the "emotions" had human names (and didn't necessarily serve as Riley's actual emotions since Riley could feel happy even when Fear was at the helm for instance), there actually was a microhpone on the console that the emotions used to talk to Riley. She didn't listen to them much though. XD**

 **By the way, for those of you who like to listen to music while reading fics... listen to "Tears of Joy" from the IO soundtrack at the last section. You'll see why when you get there... for that matter, be prepared to have this chapter be mostly sad.**

 **With that said, FINALLY we can move forward!**

* * *

In her heart, part of Riley knew that what she was doing was wrong, and had the potential to end quite badly. All such a plan might do was hurt Honesty Island.

But she was being honest with her emotions. She told them the truth, just not all of it. Technically, she should be in the clear.

Even so, her mind was an entire world, and if what she learned from the emotions' story was any indication, it seemed to exert some force on them. It might have other plans.

Speaking of...

Riley stayed silent, glancing at her emotions as a thought began to occur to her. Reflecting on the details of what had happened during the move, she remembered what Sadness had said about the memories. Even with her plans— _especially_ with her plans—she had so many questions. Oe in particular that was sticking with her.

She didn't want to appear too suspicious, or lie. And at least, given the story of the move, it was a perfectly reasonable question that raised a few implications.

"Hey, Sadness?"

The blue emotion in question glanced up at her human cautiously. "Yeah?"

"So, um, when you feel you need to change a memory, you're just... compelled to do it?"

"Yeah," Sadness admitted. "It happens just when you need it."

Riley turned to face the group as the train sped to the shelves of Long Term Memory. "And you just... do it?"

"It's like an itch that doesn't go away until you scratch it!" Anger snapped. "Sure it doesn't happen too often, but when it does—"

"It's awful!" Fear interrupted with a squeak, looking even more nervous along with the fact that Riley seemed ticked off at them. He started pacing around. "The first time, it was like feeling that something was going to attack me if I didn't do it, like there's this force in the back of your head that starts shouting, ' _Do it, do it, DO IT!_ '" Fear crouched down a bit and hid against the back of the train's compartment, having just scared himself. He then raced toward Riley, gripping her hand and looking into her eyes. "Don't you know what it's like to have a voice screaming in your head to do somethi—"

" _Ahem_ , genius," Anger coughed, just as Riley frowned down at Fear.

It only took those two reactions for Fear to realize where he had slipped up. His single hair drooped, letting go of Riley's hand and looking up at the human in apology. "Um, uh," he stammered nervously, backing up a bit and nearly bumping into Joy. "I'll be, um... over here..." With that, the nerve-like emotion slunk away from Riley, looking guilty that he had messed up yet again.

The rest of the train ride passed by in anxious silence. And while Riley couldn't hear the thoughts of her emotions, she was grateful that here, they couldn't hear her own:

 _So.. they don't even have as much control as they think?_

She wasn't quite sure if this gave her more comfort about their actions, or only scared her more. She went with the latter.

But she knew that if she focused on that, the Train of Thought would plummet more.

No matter how angry or scared she was, she had to stay on course. She had to stay in control now.

"Where would the memories of Bing Bong be if they're still here?" she asked.

"It's alphabetical," Sadness said. "It'll probably be under B for Bing-Bong."

"How can we tell?"

"The sections are marked," Sadness pointed out, leaning out the window and standing on her tiptoes slightly to point. "See those levels up top?"

Riley looked, noticing that along the side one one of the upper levels, a large A would be seen engraved on the pale-colored paneling.

"They added those so people wouldn't get confused," she said. "New Mind Workers kept getting lost in there."

" _You_ guys nearly got lost in there!" Anger pointed out.

"Well, at least there's landmarks now," Fear muttered, glancing down at the bottom. "Landmarks are good..."

As the train pulled to a stop above the right section, Riley opened the door and looked down.

"Wait Riley!" Fear exclaimed, having gone to get the rope ladder but immediately raced toward Riley. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm gonna fly down," Riley said with resolve.

"Wait, WHAT?!" exclaimed all of the emotions at once.

But before they could do anything to stop her, Riley leapt out of the trai...

... And almost instantly flew back up.

Their jaws dropped.

"... You can still do that?" Disgust said in a stunned silence.

"Guess so," Riley said, actually smiling, much to their relief. "Come on, let's go!"

Fear's eyes widened. "Wait, what are—AGHHH!"

With the Train still in the air, the emotions suddenly found themselves launched out, now hovering next to Riley. They all flailed for a minute, especially Fear who looked like he was going to faint.

"Get us down, GET US DOWN!"

"Shut up, fraidy cat!" Anger scolded with a roll of his eyes, even though he too appeared shocked that Riley's powers of warping reality extended beyond Imagination Land.

Riley paused, a curious expression manifesting on her face as she looked from her emotions down to the B-section of Long Term Memory. Maybe if she focused...

One moment, the gang was hovering in the air. The next, they suddenly found themselves making rough contact with the ground.

"Agh!"

"Oof!"

"Ow..."

"What the—"

"Woah!"

Joy was the first to pick herself up from the heap, looking up at Riley who seemed just as surprised. "Did you just... teleport us?"

"I guess so," Riley said, putting a hand to her head to try to stop her dizziness.

"How the heck are you _doing_ all that?!" Anger asked, bewildered as he nudged Fear away from him. "That's like, impossible!"

"Well, I just sort of... think it," Riley admitted. "I'm not really sure how else to explain it, I think it and it happens."

"You continue to impress me, Riley," Disgust said, smiling up at her.

Riley only managed a half smile back before turning away from them and seeking out the different sections.

"Riley's still mad at us," Sadness commented with a sigh, her head drooping.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Disgust said, looking a mixture of displeased and guilty. After all, she had been one of the ones to go along with the running away plan.

"What if Riley blasts us to pieces with lasers?!" Fear asked, taking a few more steps back from Riley as if he thought that could happen at any moment.

"I can hear you, and I'm not gonna do that," Riley called.

Joy was relieved to hear a bit of laughter in Riley's voice. But Fear, wary as ever, didn't look completely convinced.

Finally, passing memories categorized in 'Billiards' and 'Bills' but right before 'Bingo' (Riley having won a game of that against Meg when she was 7), she saw a more faded memory. It took on a sepia color, the sound was muffled, and the image was blurred, but Riley could see her younger self drawing some sort of pink creature on the wall.

Riley could really only see its pink shade, and it was a figure she didn't really recognize clearly, as the memory was fuzzy and muffled. But she knew who it must be ven before she faintly herd her younger self sing.

 _"Whos' your friend... Bing Bong, Bing Bong!"_

The emotions watched silently as Riley took the memory in her hands, observing it carefully as they wondered what she was going to do.

Riley drew her finger back and forth along the surface of the memory orb, rewinding it andAfter the memory revitalizing she had done, Riley knew this could potentially be easy. She could focus on the memory orb, and everything she knew about Bing Bong, and bring him back...

Or could she?

She could do lots of things here. But something that complex, when there had already been a Bing Bong, after what he had done for her...

Silently looking at the memory orb, her gaze became out of focus as her thoughts drifted to what had transpired over the past few days, how she had been firm about separating her own identity from those of her emotions. If she brought Bing Bong back, and it was more like a recreation... not only would it be as if he were easily replaced, but how might the new Bing Bong react? How much harder would it be to live up to separate yourself from what a previous version of you had been?

Riley knew this "we" sorting out was taking a bit of a toll on her life Outside. She didn't want anyone here to be subjected to a similar feeling, if not a worse one.

With a sigh, she reached up and slid the memory back into place on the shelf.

When she looked down, she saw the surprised looks on the emotions' faces.

"Riley?" Sadness said, breaking the silence among the emotions. "What are you doing?"

Letting her gaze linger on the memory orb in its proper place, Riley closed her eyes. When she turned to look at the group, her gaze looked slightly saddened.

"Trying to bring Bing Bong back would be like trying to clone him, or give him an identical twin," Riley explained. "It would be like him, but it might not be him. And I wouldn't want new Bing Bong to be stuck trying to separate who he is from somebody else."

The emotions looked down, each of them clearly feeling a bit guilty seeing as they knew exactly what Riley was trying to convey.

"Besides..." Riley glanced at the orb once more. "Bing Bong was willing to sacrifice himself to save my mind. I'm not gonna take that away from his memory."

The emotions then dared to glance up.

"You're willing to do that?" Anger finally said, the first to break the silence.

Riley nodded. "I mean, I'm not completely alone here; I still have you guys. And _you_ remember Bing Bong. It's not like he's really gone forever as long as someone remembers him, right?"

"... Yeah," Sadness said finally after a pause. Despite her, well, sadness at Bing Bong having disappeared, Riley did make a very good point. As long as someone remembered him in some way, he wouldn't really be gone forever. As long as Riley's mind existed, Bing Bong's memory would remain in some form—even if not in the way memories were usually made.

"But... you're willing to just... let him go?" Anger asked. "I mean, after you were ticked off at us for before—"

"I wouldn't want you guys replaced," Riley quickly assured. "And I wouldn't want Bing Bong to be like that either." She sighed a little, glancing more down as her voice grew quieter. "I don't want anyone else suffering through an identity crisis."

She looked upward at where the memory was placed. For a moment, a little bit of its former golden hue returned, and Riley managed a small but genuine smile.

"Thanks for everything, Bing Bong."

Sadness sniffled, already trying not to cry. But her sniffling turned into a surprised gasp as a moment later, the emotions found themselves being lifted into the air once more. For a moment, they hung suspended, as Riley took one last look at the memory. With another blink of an eye, the group found themselves on the train again.

Riley took another look down as the emotions were silent, before making sure the front door was shut. "Come on guys. Let's go back."

The emotions and Riley all gave silent, forlorn waves to that section of Long Term before Riley turned her gaze back to Headquarters. And just like that, the Train was parked by the structure's side as if it had never left at all.

Joy glanced at Fear. "Hey Fear, what ti—?"

"4:30am," Fear replied, already having looked down at the watch the moment Riley had teleported them back.

But the emotions were otherwise silent as Riley entered the building with them, and she looked at the blank screen of the Mind's Eye, as if searching for any image at all. Finally, she stepped closer to the console, looking down at it.

"H-Hey, um Riley!" Joy said quickly, moving more over toward the core memory holder and finding Riley's silence uncomfortable. "You, uh, wanna see our rooms now? You haven't seen them yet!"

Though the yellow emotion tried to smile, the attempt at a grin fell from her face when she saw Riley shake her head. The human girl silently walked to the console, kneeling down in front of it. She surveyed the buttons, then looked at the alcoves where the idea bulbs were. Then at the unsettled and guilt-ridden faces of her emotions.

Turning back to the console, Riley focused on it and placed her hand at the top, causing it to glow white. The clatter of a slew of memory orbs sounded from the shelves, all of them primarily white but with color swirled in the middle to signify the most prominent emotions.

Joy felt her heart sink as she watched the steady progression. Sad memories dominated it at first, mixed with Joy after she was comforted. Imagination Land was almost aal yellow, and then..

Then they got to the memories that all the emotions knew had to be about the story of the move. Anger dominated around the center, and some of them being especially vibrant caused all the emotions, Anger especially, to feel guilt at that.

Then Fear, Disgust, and Sadness reigned as well. And aside from Joy mixed with Sadness a little at around the time of their group hug, testing her abilities at Long Term Memory, and some happiness mixed with sadness when deciding to leave Bing Bong to memory at Long Term, accepting what he had done for her... yellow wasn't seen in the memories since then. Not even now.

Joy felt devastated. Riley's visits to the Mind World were supposed to be _happy_! They were her escape from the Outside! How could everything have gone so _wrong_?

Riley just stared at the memories, her grip clenching firmly on the console as she recalled what happened, and everything the emotions told her. As they looked closer, they noticed Riley's hands trembling slightly.

Finally, Riley released her grip on the console, still bathed in white from her touch. Without a word, she went over to the button in the middle of the floor and stepped down on it.

The six in Headquarters followed the paths of the memories with their eyes as the glowing spheres descended through the Memory Matrix, heading off from the winding pathways to Long Term.

"... R-Riley?" Fear asked carefully, as if afraid saying anything would cause Riley to lash out at them.

Riley turned to face the emotions as the last of the memories began their descent, the blue, red, and purple that made the last few almost leaving a wispy trail in their wake. Her blue eyes stared at them with a mixture of all those emotions—sadness, primarily—but they were all subdued.

"... I'll see you guys in the morning," she finally murmured, closing her eyes as a white light began to engulf her like a bad TV picture.

Joy gasped, her eyes widening further as she saw a lone tear slide down Riley's cheek, the normally cheerful emotion racing forward and stretching her hand out as if to somehow get through to her. "R-Riley, wait, no!"

But Joy's hand only grasped air as she hit the ground, the spot where Riley had been now devoid of any life form as the sky outside Headquarters darkened to night.

"Wha..."

The others just stared for a moment as Joy picked herself off the ground, Headquarters seeming far too silent for their liking.

"Riley just... left," Disgust said breathlessly.

"What if she doesn't love us anymore?" Sadness asked.

"No..." Joy shook her head, trying to force her gape of surprise into a smile as she turned to face the others. "I, I mean, come on guys, Riley still loves us! She said so, Riley would't lie!"

"What about Honestly Island cracking out there?" Anger retorted.

That remark silenced Joy. The smile on her face slowly fell, and her expression looked more akin to Sadness.

The screen of the Mind's Eye flickered to life, showing an image of Riley's house in San Francisco. Clearly Dream Productions had started showing their dream for the night.

The five emotions glanced at one another before Sadness slowly stepped forward. "I'll take Dream Duty tonight."

To everyone's surprise, no one argued. Not even Joy.

Disgust looked back and forth from Sadness to Joy. "Um, Joy?" she said hesitantly, "this is where you usually say," here the fashionista tried to imitate Joy as much as she could, even raising the pitch of her voice. "'No, I'll do it tonight, Sadness, you can take tomorrow! Riley needs a bit of cheering up... after... all...'"

Disgust trailed off when she saw that Joy's expression barely wavered.

"... 'that'..."

Joy just looked at the spot where Riley had been before heading toward the ramp, turning and gesturing toward the others. "We'll... tomorrow will be better..."

The others looked on for a moment as Joy started to head up the ramp. Then they looked at Sadness.

"You guys go," the blue emotion said quietly. "I'll stay here."

As the others went upstairs, and Sadness gave them a sad wave and a "Goodnight," no one noticed the remnant of white that flickered on the console.

* * *

"Good night guys."

"Good night, Joy."

"Good night."

"Hope things don't turn out to be a disaster—"

"You're not helping, Fear!" Disgust chided, noticing Joy's wince.

Their voices faded as each emotion shut their doors behind them to get ready for the next day.

Joy was the last to enter her room, slowly opening it and nudging the stray letters away before shutting the door behind her. She glanced through the peephole.

No one had come back out to the main hall. No one to probably peek in.

Removing her hand from the doorknob, Joy slowly turned to face the interior to her room. Though nothing had changed, even here seemed to have lost its spark. The light of the moon and stars through the window to her "happy place" gently shone in the makeshift sky, providing extra light along with her own glow.

Joy took a deep breath, not even acknowledging the roughness of the stepping stones and barely seeming to feel transition to the plush green mat under her feet. As she walked by, closer to her bathtub bed, her eyes met her framed drawings hung on the wall.

With her hands folded, Joy let out a sigh before silently staring at them. Sunlight, places both she Riley and liked (Disneyland was a favorite) and wanted to go to (Paris), and things that she wished she could do. Not Riley-she but Joy-she.

She glanced at one of her doing ballet off to the left, just underneath a drawing of the sun. She knew could try to order a ballet outfit from Imagination Land and have it delivered or something, but it wouldn't be the same as doing it with others. The only one who might even be somewhat willing to try that with her was Sadness.

But Joy's gaze focused on one drawing in particular. One of the ones she first saw every morning when she woke up. She took a deep breath. It had been a while since she really felt like she needed to do this.

After all, she was Joy! She was the strongest, the most enthusiastic, the most cheerful...

But even she had her moments of sadness. This was one of them. Taking a deep breath, her eyes focused on the drawing's taller figure. "I need to talk to you."

She then stood up straighter, moving a bit off to the side and adopting a more mature-sounding voice. "What's wrong, Joy?"

The yellow emotion bounced back to her original position and her previously held posture, glancing up with an unusually forlorn expression like she was looking at someone taller than her. "It's Riley."

Back to the second position and her older voice. "What about Riley?"

Joy sat down against the wall, looking upward as if she were a little kid. "We told her about the move, and... it didn't really turn out well."

She got up and looked down at where she had been sitting just moments before. "It didn't, huh?"

Joy sat down once more and nodded. "She got super mad at us for the whole running-away-idea thing."

Again she stood up and made her voice sound older. "Didn't she forgive you for it?"

As she sat down again, Joy paused. "Well, sort of... I mean, she hugged us, but she's still mad." Joy glanced down at the floor, as if unable to face the one she was talking to. "I feel like I ruined everything."

The emotion managed to stand up again, her chest feeling a little tight. "Sweetie," she then said in that gentle voice, "i-it wasn't your fault. You and Sadness were gone from Headquarters, so Disgust, Fear.. a-and Anger had to... t..take over..." She forced herself to swallow. "It's not your fault Joy."

The attempt at pretend wavered, unable to keep it up anymore as Joy focused on the words. Her bounciness from one position to the other became more of a stumble as she sat on the ground again, speaking as her normal self, her voice breaking. "I-It was though! I was such a control freak and Riley nearly ran away because she couldn't handle the others when I was gone!" Her glow dimmed as she looked firmly upward. " _I wasn't there for her and now she might hate us, Mom!_ "

A heavy silence was present in the air at the last word. Her breathing audible, Joy continued staring up at the empty space nearby as if expecting an answer, some sort of comforting words to assure her that it wasn't her fault. But at this point, Joy wasn't up for more pretending. She didn't even bother to jump back to her second position to fill in the role of her missing maternal figure. The one that she never had like Riley and knew she never could have.

Joy wrapped her arms around herself, lost in thought, her chest feeling tight as she found it hard to swallow. She herself had served as the team mom for the emotions, and in some way to Riley, over these past few years, and it had helped in some way. But it was times like these where she knew it wasn't really the same.

Riley's parents weren't hers'. The other emotions were the closest thing she had ever had to a family. Just as Riley had said, she wasn't her emotions. They never had parents to look after them and teach them about the world.

She placed her hand on the picture she had been addressing, a slightly younger version of herself being hugged by an older woman with a similar bang in the middle of her forehead. She took a small glance at the words she had scrawled next to it.

 _Me & Mom._

Joy kept her hand on the picture, trying to imagine that she was being comforted by the gentle touch of another instead of just paper and ink. But she couldn't will that into existence like Riley could with Bing Bong.

And Joy felt something slide down her face. One tear first, then another. Her breath came out shaky, trembling slightly.

 _Don't cry,_ she told herself. _You're Joy, not Sadness. You rarely cry. You cry when you're happy... don't cry, don't cry..._

But she knew she couldn't just hold this back, as much as she wanted to. It felt like forever ago since she realized how valuable crying was. But it still hurt.

"I'm... I'm sorry..."

And Joy cried. It had been over a year since she had really done any full-on crying, and this wasn't near as despairing as her time in the Memory Dump when she thought she would never get out. But there was still a deep sadness.

Joy briefly thought about going back to the main control room of Headquarters to talk to Sadness about it, but she banished the thought almost immediately. She didn't want to bother Sadness, especially seeing as she was on Dream Duty tonight.

Stepping away from her drawing so as not to smudge it, Joy instead lowered herself to the floor. She thought of her drawings, not just here in her room, but in her "happy" place which she could easily get to if she wished. All she had to do was climb out the window, walk down the path, and reach that little house which she considered a second home for her, forgetting all her worries—or at least pretend to forget them.

Unable to sleep, she decided to do just that.

Forcing the tears away, Joy moved around her bathtub and brushed the pink curtains of the window to the side, enough for her to step over the window and hoist herself onto the other side.

The dirt pathway underneath her feet comforted her, as she walked along it, briefly glancing back. From the pocket dimension of her happy place, the window back to her room looked merely like the window of an everyday house, with pale yellow brick.

Except the only way in was through said window.

Sure, it was quite a bit different from her Happy Place, which on the outside was a replica of Belle's house from _Beauty and the Beast_ , but it was suitable for what she liked.

With the light of the moon and stars to guide her, as well as her own glow, Joy walked along the path and surveyed the few trees that surrounded it. It was the closest she felt she could get to what walking in nature was actually like. Not just experiencing it through Riley's senses as her emotion, but just as herself. As Joy.

 _Was this how Riley felt?_ The thought wasn't exactly comforting to Joy, and she picked up the pace to her house.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and flicked on the nearby light switch. While the exterior was like Belle's house, the inside was quite different. The lights in the main interior shone light bright orbs, there were ramps to each floor instead of stairs (which could function as a slide in a pinch) and a ball pit that was right by a small kitchen with a fridge full of ice cream.

She remembered how both Riley's parents, and Sadness, had once said ice cream was a good comfort food. But even as she went across the ball pit and opened the fridge, she sighed. She pulled out a bowl and a tub of ice cream for herself, but only put a single scoop in her bowl.

Joy then stood up and got another bowl, placing it across from her at the table and scooping another lump of ice cream into it. "There ya go, Riley!"

As expected, there was no response.

"So, um, yeah," Joy said, glancing around a little, "this is my happy place, glad you're... here to... see it..."

The yellow emotion trailed off, placing the spoon into her bowl with a clatter. As much as she wanted to imagine Riley was here with her, their host was clearly in no mood for that.

Riley just needed time.

Finishing off the ice cream for herself, Joy went over to the upper floor of the house, containing her bedroom here, but that wasn't the most conspicuous thing about the upstairs.

What was most noticeable was her drawings, some similar to those in her room while others more grand. Some were of things Outside, some of herself and her friends, some of Riley, some of completely imagined worlds...

Some of Bing Bong...

And some of the family she never had.

Joy looked at one picture that she had been working on. It was her and the other emotions, as well as Bing Bong, with Riley at the center, all of them in a group hug. But they were accompanied by two others as well. A man and a woman who looked somewhat like Joy, but older.

The emotion looked at what she had marked the painting:

 _My Family._

Of course, she knew that could never be. Her imagined parents didn't exist. Bing Bong had been forgotten. And Riley herself was now feared to have had that chance lost.

As Joy gathered a few of her supplies, she looked at another picture of herself and her imagined mother. If her mother were here, if she were real, she might be able to give advice. She might know what to do to help with Riley.

But Joy knew that she'd just have to rely on her own judgement just as always. And hopefully things would turn out okay for Riley in the morning and they hadn't messed everything up for good.

Hopefully, soon, Riley would be willing to see this.

And as brought her paints closer to herself, feeling tears come to her eyes once more as she looked at her drawings, Joy was glad that no one had seen her go to her Happy Place. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to see the happiest of the emotions cry over not only feeling like she lost a friendship, but lost something she never truly had.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was quite longer and more feelsy than I was initially expecting. ^^; Yeah, sad hidden depths for Joy there. :( By the way, I didn't make up all that stuff in Joy's room: according to the art book, that's actually what's in there, including the Happy Place, though I did make up what the inside looked like. I wish that it showed the other emotions' rooms as well, but oh well, that's where imagination comes in. I wanted to include that scene with Joy at the end to give a bit of parallel/contrast to Riley's thoughts with Bing Bong, especially when I noticed what one of Joy's drawings was—hence the title of this chapter being able to refer to both of them.**

 **So with that sad bit and a potential cliffhanger regarding what's up with the console there, see ya next chapter—which I promise will be out MUCH sooner—and remember to review! Also... *hands out box of tissues in apology for feels last chapter and this chapter***


	18. Access Denied

**A/N: Well, after that night of emotional highs and lows, let's see what the morning brings! As for what happened there with Riley and the console, time to find out!**

 **But before we do, some points I want to bring up:**

 **1\. I noticed that it was brought up on Intercom's TV Tropes page that even though the fic's title is called Intercom, it ended up moving beyond that.. Well, there's a reason for that: consider it an artifact title. When I started the fic weeks before the film came out, the thought I had in my head was "I want to write a fic where Riley hears her emotions and I want to do it before anyone else can take that idea first"... and that's it. I didn't have a larger plot in place at all at that point, just that quick idea I wanted to get out of the way. The plot it's at now and leading up to? Didn't crop up in my mind until a bit after the film's release when I got to see it. So, would I have named the fic something different? Yes. Do I know what I would have named it... no. In fact, I would have tried to come up with something to change it a while ago, but by that point it was known as Intercom already to people and even got a TV Tropes page, so I left it as it is.^^; Also, I added a few points to the fic's Trivia page under Accidentally Accurate, check them out. :)**

 **2\. If you guys haven't heard of tulpas, apparently they're kind of similar to this.**

 **3\. HUGE thanks to ConMan1226 on deviantart for the awesome cover art—I honestly wouldn't have found it probably if it hadn't been put on the TV Tropes page, so, thank you!**

 **Also, I wanted to say R.I.P. to Alan Rickman. He did great as Severus Snape and Sadness took the console for a good portion of the day then, and Harry Potter Island in my head took a hit. He will be fondly remembered. :'(**

 **With all that said, let's move forward...**

* * *

Joy steadily blinked her eyes open the next morning, the calming water surrounding her only bringing somewhat of a semblance of comfort. She remembered how it had been 4:30 around the time Riley had left, so assuming it was the usual wake-up time, they had only gotten about three hours of sleep at the absolute maximum.

No doubt Anger wouldn't be happy about that and would likely be grumpier than usual...

The yellow emotion lifted herself from her bathtub bed, shaking the matter off her form and glancing at the picture of her and her imaginary mom.

"Okay, Joy," she told herself, "you can do this. Riley will be fine today, we'll help guide her through this!" Even as the memories of what they would have to face today reared their ugly head, Joy tried to stay positive. After all, it was her forte.

She tried to get a spring in her step as she darted across the stepping stones on the ground, stopping at the mail slot at her door. And she noticed something that caused her brow to arch in confusion. Or rather, noticing a lack of something.

No mail today, not even a pamphlet on the state of affairs in Long Term. How odd...

But Joy forced herself to brush it off. Usually it was all just junk mail, anyway, missing a day wasn't exactly a big loss. "They're probably just all busy doing soul-memory organization and such," she told herself. After all, Riley had sent plenty of memories down last night.

The thought of those memories caused Joy's smile to fade slightly. She recalled how just before leaving last night, Riley had sent down a memory timeline of her night, even duplicates of memories from the earlier influx of spheres brought on by her touching the console. And yet they weren't quite duplicates, but looking back on those earlier moments in a way that was a bit tainted by what she had learned. The emotions weren't able to change those memories, so Riley had, in a sense, overridden them herself.

Not exactly the most comforting thought, even for the most cheerful of the emotions.

But Joy forced that signature positivity of hers to stick. She was the leader, the eldest (albeit just by 33 seconds in Sadness's case), and the one who could most help Riley cheer up. If she and the others played their cards right, they could make this work.

With that, Joy headed out her door and into the hallway, reaching the main upstairs chamber to see her fellow emotions groggily exit their own rooms. Fear looked even more on edge than usual, glancing down the pathway toward the ramp as if going down it would lead to a dangerous chasm from which there was no return. Disgust rubbed her eyes, looking tired and more than a little concerned for the day. The smug expression that usually was present on her face was absent, replaced by a look that almost reminded Joy more of Sadness.

And speaking of Sadness, said emotion was just walking up the ramp from Dream Duty, looking a bit more melancholy and concerned than usual.

"Oh, hey Sadness!" Joy said, managing her usual grin despite her own melancholy thoughts about what happened yesterday and what might come up today. "How was Dream Duty?"

"Okay," Sadness responded with a shrug. "The dream tried to involve Riley riding the Train of Thought, but the set messed up and the train just crashed into the equipment.

"Huh..." Joy bit her lip, hoping that Riley wouldn't remember that as her first thought of the day. Then again, all things considered, perhaps it was better letting the recent past and upcoming future cross her mind...

"Riley should be waking up in a couple minutes," Sadness added. A deeper frown manifested on her face as she glanced down toward the ramp. "And, um..."

Suddenly, there was a slam down the hallway that caused the other four emotions to turn around, Sadness trailing off.

Anger, as expected, looked decidedly ticked off as he entered the main hall. "Okay, I felt like I got _no_ sleep at all last night, Riley has the whole day stacked against her, and I didn't get my paper!"

Disgust's eyebrows raised, "so you didn't get your daily mail either?"

"Who cares about your fashion magazines?"

"If you think magazines are all I get, then—"

But Disgust never finished, the four emotions instead looking up as what sounded like a vacuum suction as well as paper rebounded from the ceiling above them.

"Whew, there we go!" Joy exclaimed, her face alight with relief. "Mail's just a bit late this morning, that's all!"

Above them, they heard the woosh of air and papers zooming by, followed by fluttering and the impact of paper as the mail was sped through the ceiling, a chute opening up above each of the emotions' doors. Joy raced toward her door and managed to catch them before the papers flew through the mail slot in her door.

"Got it!" she called.

"Good for you," Anger grumbled. "It's not a..."

It was then that Joy heard Anger fall silent, and she instantly felt curiosity take over, the contents of the mind mail in her hands forgotten. It was a very very rare moment for Anger to not finish a sentence. And on those occasions he did, it was followed by a different sentence.

To have Anger of all emotions actually trail off so abruptly...

Joy hurried through the hall into the main area, where Disgust had a magazine, Fear had another notepad with a fresh pen, and Sadness was removing a letter of thanks from Dream Productions that had landed on her head.

But Anger drew all their attention as he held up his copy of _The Mind Reader_. "I think today's gonna be trouble."

The group looked at the headline, and thoughts of whatever mail they individually had gotten instantly flew out the window.

 **Outlook Not-So-Good.**

 **Doubts Expressed about Headquarters Staff.**

Fear stiffened. "That's us!"

Anger's fists clenched a little around the newspaper. "Well _this_ is just great!"

"I'm not surprised she still hates us," Sadness mumbled, looking even more saddened than she had several moments ago.

"We're gonna get kicked out!" Fear lamented.

"I don't think she can _do_ that, worrywart," Disgust said, looking almost like she wanted to smack Fear with a rolled-up magazine. "We're her emotions! Who else can run Headquarters?"

"Guys, guys!" Joy quickly tried to stand in the center of the group, holding her hands out to try to calm everyone down. "Okay, so that headline is a _little_ concerning, but nothing that a little perk-up from Team Happy can't fix, right?"

"I'm not sure Team Happy can do much fixing today," Anger snapped, starting to head down to the main part of Headquarters with the newspaper tight in his grip as the others followed. "After that whole mess last night it seems like the Friendship Express train has gone kaput!"

Fear went from looking horrified about the newspaper to practically leaping up in the air. "Oh no, we gotta get the Train of Thought back!"

Before any of the others could say a word, Fear raced down the ramp as if his life depended on it, veering quickly to the right to race out the door to Headquarters. The Train was heard speeding away before the others reached the bottom of the ramp.

"... Maybe next time we can ask Riley to teleport it back," Sadness said after a moment. She then sniffled. "If there is a next time..."

"Hey, hey, sure there will be!" Joy assured, putting an arm around Sadness before gesturing to the others. "Come on gang, let's head over and wait for Riley to wake up, and soon Fear should be back, then the six of us can all get ready to attack the day!"

"That can be arranged." Anger said. "Especially Tracy!"

"She didn't mean literally," Disgust said with a roll of her eyes.

As the group approached the console, they watched the empty screen carefully.

Joy looked back from the screen to where the Mind's Eye projector was, tempted to recall a happy memory to wake Riley up with. But her attention turned back when Sadness took her hand.

"Let Riley sleep," she said carefully.

"She's only gonna get three hours as it is," Disgust said. "Now on top of everything else she's gonna wake up with dry eyes." The green emotion cringed at the thought, not looking forward to that. After all, they felt what Riley felt through the Sensory Field present around the console, and crusty eyes was certainly not a pleasant feeling.

As the screen came into view, they saw light begin to shift from behind Riley's eyelids, just a mere pinprick of light as her consciousness roused itself into the waking world. A few tired blinks further cleared her vision.

Though the beings in Headquarters felt their own tiredness from lack of sleep, feeling Riley's on top of it only served to strengthen the blow. Not only had last night's Mind World adventure taken a bit of a toll on her mental relationship with her emotions, it seemed like her physical body had suffered as well.

Joy cleared her throat as Riley groaned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning slightly. "Um, uh, good morning, Riley!"

"'Morning," Riley murmured in response, fighting to sit up. Her voice didn't exactly sound like the most cheerful in the world, though it wasn't quite hostile toward her mental companions either. The group knew that they were treading a thin line here, so they'd need to watch what they said and did carefully.

"Think you're ready for another day?"

Riley fought back the tiredness of sleep as she threw the covers off herself, heading over to her closet. "I'm gonna try."

Joy's expression settled into one of relief, raising her arm up in the air in a "Hurrah". "Alright, that's my girl!" The yellow emotion eagerly pulled a lever on the console, eager to boost Riley's mood and start the day with a fresh new outlook. Even if Riley was still ticked off at them, Joy hoped they could turn that around. Or at least give their girl a nudge in a hopefully more positive direction.

But just as Joy pressed a button, a buzzing noise sounded, a sound that was akin to an alarm or a "wrong answer" button. Even more unsettling, the console wasn't turning a bright, comforting yellow as normal.

In fact, it wasn't doing a thing.

That is, until it turned white.

"What the—" Joy frowned, pulling the lever down, then up again.

"What the _heck_ is going on?!" Anger exclaimed, fighting against the urge to turn a few dials himself.

Nothing seemed to work, and Riley didn't seem to have a change in mood at first. But after a couple moments, they found it wasn't quite true—Joy and the others could sense that she did seem happier in a way, but it didn't seem like that was the console's doing. But there was also confusion present.

"Um, what's wrong?" Riley called, enough for the gang to hear but hopefully not her parents.

"Just a few, um, technical difficulties!" Joy called, trying to stay chipper as she pressed a few more buttons on the console at the same time. "We'll get it fixed, don't—"

It was then that the door to the left opened, Fear stumbling in carrying supplies from the Train of Thought. And the moment he saw the stunned expressions of the others and the console glowing white, he dropped all the boxes and raced toward the console with a clatter.

Fear froze up, looking for a moment like he was going to have a heart attack. After a moment, he raced over toward the console with a terrified expression on his face, looking even more horrified than when Gloom had been infecting the console. "RILEY!" he shouted. "I don't mean to alarm you, but _something's REALLY wrong in here!_ "

"What's going on?" Riley asked, her body tensing up as she glanced upward. After everything else that had happened, she didn't want to think that she had somehow damaged her mind further.

"We're trying to figure that out," Sadness said, looking worried. "Maybe there's something in the manuals about it." With that, Sadness hurried over to the alcove as fast as her legs could carry her.

"The console's white but you're not here!" Fear cried, trying to press a myriad of buttons to help Riley react to the fact that this was _very_ bad news indeed.

But nothing worked.

"Okay, I'm officially freaking out," Disgust said, realizing that not even her input was doing anything.

Anger too tried pulling a few levers, with the others joining in in an attempt to encourage some sort of input. But nothing happened when they touched it, only remaining with that steady white glow. " _Why_ isn't anything working?! I think all those memory transfer things are starting to mess things up!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Joy quickly tried to say, even though she tried to give her own emotion input with nothing happening. "Sadness is checking the mind manuals, everything's gonna be fine!"

Over by the bookshelves, Sadness hurriedly scanned the covers of the mind manuals, finally coming to the one titled "Console Construction" _._ _Hopefully this will help..._

The blue emotion scanned through the Table of Contents, past the sections on console levels and the inner workings of each one. Finally, she noticed that one subsection was titled **Console Troubleshooting**... with a further issue being **Emotion Lockout**.

"Riley?" Fear called, only frantically picking up the speed of his button-pressing in the hopes that something would jar their normal operating mode back to normal. "This is bad! You should be panicking! WHY AREN'T YOU PANICKING?!"

Riley shrugged, her voice when she replied sounding a little scared, but more than anything, nearly in awe. "I feel fine."

The emotions looked slowly from the screen to one another, those three words in particular echoing in their own heads like a rockslide falling in a cave.

 _"I feel fine."_

It was then that the realization fully dawned on them. Anger looked at the console with a bewildered expression. "She _didn't_..."

"D-Didn't what?" Fear trembled, hoping that as long as the answer he thought it was wasn't said, his worst fear wouldn't turn out to be the case.

"Isn't it obvious?!" Anger snapped, gesturing toward the unresponsive console that now took on a white hue. "She—"

"Riley locked us out."

Fear's eyes gave him the appearance of a deer in headlights, his eyebrows practically flying off his head as he stared desperately up at the screen. "DON'T KICK US OUT! We'll try to be better, we promise!"

Anger slammed his fist down. The console remained white. "It's like Gloom but the opposite!"

Fear's fingers were trembling as they gripped the console. "But how are you doing that?!"

"I did it before I left last night."

The emotions looked up at the screen in silence. After a few seconds, Fear was the first one to break it.

"You did _WHAT?!_ "

"I wanted to test something." Riley took off her pajamas and started getting into her normal clothes for the day, making sure not to look in the mirror in an effort to avoid anymore embarrassing moments of self-consciousness as she pulled her green, red, and gold jagged shirt over her head. She didn't sound especially happy about it, angry at her emotions for the night before, or disgusted, sad, or fearful. It almost was as if she felt... neutral about the whole thing. Not apathetic, not like Gloom was back, just not feeling any particular emotion with overwhelming strength.

"Well, um, Riley," Joy said. "Isn't this a bit extreme? Ya know, we can chat together, we'll get ya through the day, things'll work out!"

Riley sighed. "I thought about what you guys told me about last year, and I decided that maybe I was wrong letting you guys do all the ideas and emotional work, especially with what I'm gonna have to deal with today." Her voice became more like muttering. "Talking to Mom and Dad, maybe confessing about the test, trying to stop Tracy from thinking I'm crazy, making sure I don't get sent to a mental hospital—"

"But we can help you!" Joy protested. "We've gotten through the past few days, we'll help you again!"

"I want to see what I can do on my own," Riley said firmly as she tied her sneakers, only briefly glancing upward. Inside her head, the white glow on the console was briefly replaced by red, gold, and blue. "Well, I mean, sort of on my own..." She shook her head a little. "You want to help me?"

A chorus of yeses were heard in her mind.

"Take the day off with the emotional instructions for now. Let _me_ try this."

"But, Riley," Joy started.

Riley sighed, her voice now filled with a mixture of regret and interest. "Look. I know you guys mean well... but give me a chance. Now that I know what it's like."

Joy slowly withdrew her hand from the console.

Riley spoke again. "Let me try to start fixing my problems this way."

A couple of blended memory orbs rolled onto the shelves. The group of emotions silently followed their path with their eyes.

Finally, Disgust spoke. "This has bad idea written all over it."

A button clicked down on its own, followed by the console glowing a mix of yellow and green.

"I just want to try this," Riley assured, sounding as if she were feeling a mixture of intrigue and relief. "You guys tried it a year ago when things were out of whack, I want to see how I can do."

"Riley, this is a bad idea," Sadness tried to insist, the manual in her hands. "The _Console Construction_ Manual says that if emotion lockout occurs—"

But Sadness was then silenced as there was a knock on the door.

"Riley?" It was Mrs. Andersen. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Riley called back.

"Can we come in and talk, monkey?" her dad asked as well. "Please? You promised us." Mr. Andersen didn't sound angry at his daughter, just concerned.

They both were, and Riley could understand why. She felt her throat tighten, her eyes darting back and forth a moment.

"Try to avoid it!" Fear pleaded, pressing a myriad of buttons and levers as if hoping that would give back more control. "J-Just try to have your tiredness cover it up, then you'll get out of explaining til later!"

"Then she'll be breaking her promise to tell in the morning!" Anger shot back, nudging the purple emotion.

Riley winced at the thought of Honesty Island getting further damage to it.

"And besides," Anger went on, "it's not like we can do anything!" He stared up at the screen of Riley's vision, placing a hand on the console and let out a begrudging sigh. "Riley's kind of the one in command now."

Despite the verbal and attempted emotional input of both Anger and Fear, the console glowed neither red nor purple. Instead, kept its largely white glow before transitioning to yellow.

Fear whipped his head around. "Joy? You got through?!"

But the yellow emotion's hand had just been reaching for a button on the console. "I didn't..." Frowning, she threw caution to the wind and pressed it. If she could synchronize her input with Riley's control, maybe console command could be brought back to them.

But the console didn't return to its normal state, as Riley remained firm on her word. Part of it glowed yellow, as well as red, and Riley took a deep breath before managing a look of hopeful determination, raising her voice so her parents could hear.

"Come in."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, Riley's Plan A of being free of her problems is starting to be put into effect, and the thought of possibly fixing her problems fills her with determination. Yes, I did just reference Undertale. No, I don't regret it. :) Hoping to have next chapter up next week! Hope you enjoyed and remember to review!**


	19. A Talk With Mom and Dad

**A/N: Well, I've learned my lesson: don't make promises about deadlines. XD So yeah, this chapter took a bit longer than I was expecting to get out, mainly because I was debating on how exactly the confrontation could go. So, enough of that, on with the chapter!**

 **EDIT: I did add a bit more to the initial post and change some wording, and adding some. I'm not going to be able to update for a couple weeks until after Valentine's Day since I'm busy, and I wanted to at least get this out before that rather than waiting a month for a new chapter considering when I posted chapter 18.**

 **EDIT 2: I added a bit near the end on the whole "hearing emotions and schizophrenia" thing.**

* * *

The door opened as the Andersens stepped into the room, identical worried expressions on each of their faces.

Riley fought to swallow a lump in her throat, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, hoping tiredness might at least provide some excuse of not being quite awake if she gave a worrisome answer to whatever questions they might have.

It didn't seem to work, as for a moment the parents glanced at one another as if even this was a cause for further worry.

"Why do they look even _more_ worried now than they did five seconds ago?" Fear asked hesitantly.

"Maybe they're just not sure what to say about all this," Joy said, trying to keep some sense of positivity to prevent everyone else from going into a panic. That was the last thing they needed right now, especially with Riley wanting to try feeling with no guidance whatsoever.

The console's white hue became joined with a rapid mix of all the emotions' colors at once as a couple more memory orbs rolled onto the shelves. The quintet residing in Headquarters couldn't help but look on worriedly. Especially as Riley's body practically went rigid, conflicted at what to feel, how strongly to feel it, and how to answer the questions that were sure to be asked.

"Okay, Riley," Joy said slowly, her brow furrowed in a tense concentration, pressing a button in the hopes that she could provide some sort of emotional encouragement to Riley to help her get through this tense situation, "stay calm..."

"Stay calm?!" Fear exclaimed, very obviously jittery as the others could practically see the particles on his hands wavering. "How can she stay calm?! If she says the wrong thing they could—"

"Shh!" Disgust said harshly, nudging him as they sensed Riley cringe, which only served to further her parents' anxiety. "Don't make things worse!"

"All we can really do is watch," Sadness pointed out. "Talking too much might just mess things up."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Anger grumbled.

In that moment, it was as if the console being white had subsequently turned Headquarters into an iceberg in the middle of the ocean. They could only give Riley verbal advice, but emotional input was, for now, out of the question.

Unless their human relinquished control, she was emotionally on her own. And Fear was doing all he could to keep from screaming, instead resorting to anxiously biting the tips of his fingers.

Riley met her parents' anxious stares with her own, trying to come up with different ways to defend herself. She had some idea of her responses to questions they might ask, but now that the moment was here, she felt as if it were a test where all the answers flew out the window.

The rapid kaleidoscope of color that shone amidst the white of the console slowly had each color fade in intensity one by one, until only white was left. They could hear Riley's thoughts echoing.

 _"I feel fine."_

Riley folded her hands on her lap, waiting as her parents sat on either side of her. And for a moment, none of the Andersens seemed to know what to say to one another.

Finally, after glancing at one another, Jill cleared her throat, looking down at her daughter with regret as well as concern. "Riley," she said carefully, "after what Ann told us yesterday about you hearing voices and seeming to talk to them..."

Riley stayed silent, her expression even, though she wasn't even sure that was the best solution. "Y-Yeah?"

"Please tell us, sweetie... _have_ you been hearing voices?"

Riley felt her chest tighten, fighting every impulse to look away from them. Inside her mind, purple joined white in the console's coloration. No matter what she said, it could have drastic consequences.

"We know you're usually an honest girl," her dad added. " _Please_ don't lie to us..."

The console in Riley's head turned partially yellow, then purple, then red, joined by purple once more. The emotions could hear Riley's frantic thoughts.

 _Try to do what Joy would do, no, I_ can't _feel happy about this, I'm scared! But if I'm scared they'll think something's up, ugh, but something_ is _up! If I tell then they're probably gonna call me crazy! And if I lie and say I'm not hearing anything it'll be worse because they'll know I'm lying!_

"Don't be scared," Joy whispered, trying to encourage her. "You can do this..."

Part of Riley wanted to just deny it and lie that she wasn't hearing anything out of the ordinary. That she was normal and there was nothing to be concerned about.

But another part of her didn't want to lie anymore. They'd likely know if she was lying, anyway.

Besides, as much as she dreaded telling her parents, she _had_ promised them...

Finally, after mentally warring with herself, Riley forced herself to speak, fighting against her wayward emotional states as she took a deep breath and looked at both her parents, feeling as if her next words would set off a bomb. "Y... Yes."

A heavy silence was present in the air at that. At least, on the outside.

Inside the heads of Mr. and Mr. Andersen, however, it was the exact opposite.

* * *

Mrs. Andersen's Fear looked like she was going to have a heart attack. "She _has_ been hearing voices?!" She frantically pulled out a bunch of papers, stacking them beside her at the console as she swung a lever to trigger a reaction in Mrs. Andersen's mind. "It's just like we were afraid of! She might have schizophrenia!"

"It doesn't necessarily mean she has it," Jill's Anger pointed out firmly, though she was troubled by Riley's answer as well.

"We read the symptoms last night!" Fear argued. "They fit!"

Jill's Sadness straightened up in her chair, the normal parental concern on her face magnified threefold. She glanced at the others, Joy trying to stop Fear from going nuts on the console. "We can't freak out, but we can't just let her get away with easy answers after what happened last year."

All five of the emotions, while tense, nodded and murmured their agreement.

Jill's Sadness took a deep breath. "Let's probe, but be gentle about it. We don't want her to be scared and not explain what's going on. The only way we can help her is from her telling us everything."

* * *

Inside Mr. Andersen's head, his Anger frowned. "Hold alert level steady at Defcon 4!"

"Yes, sir!" Fear responded, pressing a few buttons on the console along with the others present in Headquarters. The interior's overhead lighting was bathed in a slightly red hue.

"Think we'll need to raise it?" Disgust asked, looking back.

"Only if necessary, if things really seem to get serious," Anger instructed, his hands clenched on the arms of his chair.

"Maybe it's all her emotions," Joy pointed out. "That wouldn't be, well, quite as bad—"

"And maybe it's not," Anger countered. "We should keep questioning her and hope that the schizophrenia stuff we looked up doesn't apply to Riley. Hold things steady, and make sure not to let her dodge answers. We don't want a repeat of last year, understand?"

"Noted, sir!" Fear called.

* * *

A few moments later, Mr. Andersen broke the silence by speaking up again. Both Riley and her mother could tell the question was just as hard for him to say as it was for them to hear.

"How long have you been hearing them?"

Riley shrugged, trying to keep her emotions under control and not wanting to overreact, even though she had to practically force the words out. "A... A few days."

"What kind of voices?" Mr. Andersen asked. "Have they been telling you things?" His expression, though unnerved by what he had just heard, was firm but kind. As nervous as Riley felt about finally confessing at least part of the truth.

"What do you mean?"

"Have they been saying negative things or harming you?"

"No! Well... except maybe the running away plan thanks to mainly Anger," Fear said quietly before being punched by said emotion.

Riley winced, and the emotions in her head could feel her agreement on that statement like waves of energy.

The five, especially Joy, felt as if they had been suddenly hit with a blast from a snowstorm. It almost physically hurt as they realized that Riley really wasn't sure if she could say if they had hurt her or not. They hadn't physically, but the running away plan _had_ been a bad idea...

Maybe if this conversation had been had any day before this, Riley would have said no without hesitation. But knowing about the move, it seemed, had changed that perspective completely. Each moment of silence was painful for everyone in the room, humans and emotions alike.

And Riley wasn't sure what to say. But trying not to let her emotional responses get too out of control, she forced herself to remain calm as much as she could. Finally she forced herself to speak. "No," she admitted. "I hear them mainly talking to me... and... a-and saying my name and stuff." Which was technically true.

Mrs. Andersen then spoke, placing a hand on Riley's shoulder, causing the young girl to flinch. "Are those voices the reason you seem to be distracted and quieter lately? Not even Pizza Planet had you in a good mood yesterday..."

Riley shrugged again, looking down, unable to meet her parents' gazes. She wasn't willing to look at the horror and pain that were likely all over their faces now. "I guess."

"Sweetie, tell us." Mrs. Andersen frowned, wishing that she could really see inside her daughter's head to really know what was wrong with her. She knew she had to be gentle, for Riley's sake, or the young girl would never open up to them. "Are you being bullied a lot at school? Is that's what's wrong?"

Riley sighed, only barely looking up at her parents now. The console inside her head flashed blue, a lever pulling on its own. She was finding it harder and harder to keep her own emotional responses in check, especially with the stress of the situation. "Tracy thinks I'm crazy."

It was her father who spoke now. "Is it mainly because you've been hearing voices, or something else?"

Riley clenched her fists, blue lighting up the console as several tears fell down her face. _Should I tell them about the test?_

"We just... we just want to make sure that you're okay—"

In Riley's head, the emotions jumped back a bit, especially Fear, as the console flashed red amongst the white, purple joining it. The 12-year-old looked sharply up at her parents. The calm, almost poker-face-like demeanor vanished.

"You guys think I'm crazy too, don't you?!"

Her parents' eyes widened in surprise at her outburst, Mrs. Andersen removing her hand from Riley's shoulder.

* * *

Mrs. Andersen's Sadness gasped, her hands removing from the console. "Oh Riley—"

"We have to get through to her!" Fear cried. "Maybe she really is going crazy!"

"We can't accuse her of it or anything!" Anger exclaimed. "She'll just push us away more!"

"We need to just try to be calm," Sadness said, though the others could see that she couldn't blame Fear for her worry.

* * *

Mr. Andersen's Anger sat up in his seat. "Fear," he ordered, "take it to Defcon 3."

"Yes sir," Fear replied, his hand firmly on the controls as he pulled a lever, the other emotions remaining on high alert. "Something's up with our daughter and we're going to find out what it is."

* * *

"Sweetie," Mrs. Andersen quickly said. "We don't think you're crazy, we just want to help—"

"You're thinking I have schizophrenia, aren't you?!" Riley demanded, shoving herself away from her parents. "You're seeing if I need to be sent to a psychiatrist or a mental hospital?!"

Inside her head, Riley's console was practically going haywire. Fear, anger, disgust, sadness, all those emotions were cycling through the console like a pinwheel. She couldn't find any joy in a situation like this. Mostly fear and anger.

Fear practically clung to Joy. "It's gonna explode!"

"I-It's not gonna explode!" Joy quickly assured him, though the barrage of colors the console was displaying wasn't exactly the most comforting sight. She raised her voice. "Riley! Try to control yourself..."

 _"I can't, okay?!"_ Riley thought to them. _"I don't know what to do! I'm scared and angry a-and—"_

"But _we're_ here for you!" Joy said. It pained her deeply to see Riley like this, as she dared to place her hands on the console. "I—It's okay!"

"Riley," Mr. Andersen said bringing Riley's attention back to the physical world, "believe us, we'd never send you to a mental hospital, and they aren't anything like you see in movies.."

"Just tell us what's wrong," Jill pleaded as Riley clenched her fists, turning away. "We just want to help..."

Green lit up Riley's console in her head. "Sure, you want to 'help' by putting me on pills or something!" she snapped, quickly packing her backpack for school. Blue took over as tears filled her eyes once more. Everything was going wrong.

"Riley!" Sadness pleaded inside her head, tugging at the console herself to see if she could help calm her down due to the console now being her color. No such luck. "Calm down, they want to help!"

"You're making it worse!" Fear shouted, tugging at the console himself.

"No, _you're_ making it worse, stringbean!" Anger countered, tugging Fear away and sucking him in the chest.

If her parents were saying anything else to her, Riley barely registered it. Her heart was pounding in her chest, blood roaring in her ears, barely able to focus on the conversations Inside and Outside at the same time.

She just wanted quiet. And she couldn't have that here.

Not now, anyway.

Riley quickly hoisted her backpack over her shoulder. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Just tell us—"

"Maybe later," Riley said with a firm shake of her head. "I have too much on my mind right now."

In Riley's head, Fear leapt away from the rapidly changing console as if it were about to burst into flames.

"Sweetie—"

Riley hurried down the stairs as fast as she could, not wanting to blow up at them and wanting to face them when she was a bit more calm. "I promise, I'll tell you everything later after school."

"Riley, please—"

"I can't deal with this right now!" Riley called, trying to calm herself down and feeling the influx of emotions begin to fade. "I'll tell you everything tonight, I promise!"

With that, she slammed the door before her parents could run after her.

* * *

The walk to school passed for several minutes in relative silence.

The farther away Riley got from the stressful situation, the more subdued her emotions became. To say the least, she felt awful. She had to go and react rashly, and she had ended up screwing everything up.

"Well, um..." Joy said, fiddling with her fingers and for once uncertain of what to say. "Okay, maybe that could have gone better."

Disgust rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"I think it would have gone bad no matter who had command of the console," Riley muttered.

"But Riley!" Fear exclaimed, racing toward the console and trying to get any input into the console for himself now. "I told you that one of the dangerous things in the manual is 'hijacking the console', and what do you do? You hijack it!"

The console flashed green and red as Riley responded, letting out a disgruntled sigh. "Well _maybe_ if I read the manuals, there will be no risk of anything else happening like that."

Fear opened his mouth to respond, only to stop. He stared up at the screen of Riley's vision in disbelief.

As did the others.

"Wait a minute," Anger said, his brow narrowed into a disbelieving scowl, "you're saying that you did that _just_ so you could convince us to let you read the manuals?"

"That could have been dangerous," Sadness pointed out.

"Could have—it _WAS_!" Fear cried. "Look what happened!"

"Given what you were doing, it probably would have been even worse if you were allowed to get your mitts on the console!" Anger snapped.

Riley sighed, hoisting her backpack into a more comfortable position. "I still wanted to try this whole 'feeling for myself' thing—"

"Even though it went awfully," Sadness mumbled, looking melancholy about the whole mess.

Riley, despite Sadness not having any influence on the console herself, felt that melancholy mood as well. "I mean, I could have tried to just get all the manual's information and try to take charge of everything in Headquarters or something—"

"Glad you didn't!" Fear cried.

"But I didn't want to just lock you out completely behind your guys' backs without knowing what I was getting into. I figured that this would be enough to make a point but not so bad we couldn't fix it."

"Even though you _kind of_ went behind our backs with the whole 'reworking the console' thing," Disgust pointed out, trying not to sound too mean.

Riley's shoulders slumped a little. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Disgust was right. She sped up the pace of her walk, the console turning first red than blue. "I-I can get better!" For a moment, she paused, thinking it over as she recalled what happened mere minutes ago. She had tried to control her own responses without any internal guidance, and it had went horribly. The console became alight with green to join the others.

"Tell you what," she finally said, "I'll let you guys help out from now on today if I think I really need it."

Despite how horrible the morning had started, the hopeful spark in Joy's eyes couldn't help but return. "Really?"

" _If_ ," Riley cut in, "tonight we can work on going through the manuals. Together. Then I'll know what to do and what not to do."

Every one of Riley's words were true. ANd she couldn't help but wonder her full plan—assuming it was possible, that is—could work.

Reworking the console like this was doable. If that could be done, the other things she had in mind might work too. If all went well, with her emotions' help, her reworking of the console could be used along with the other component, and it could solve everything. No more head mishaps and conflicts of being crazy to the Outside.

But she knew now that it may be beneficial to at least work together with the emotions on this. She might be able to get through part of the day as she got more used to this, but if everything went as it had this morning, it might turn out all wrong.

The emotions turned as they heard a clicking noise from outside Headquarters, like a ride starting up. Joy dared to head away from the console to get a better view, noticing that Possibility Island's workings seemed to be moving at a faster pace than the others.

The yellow emotion beamed as she turned to dart back over to the console. "Hey Riley—"

But her momentary relief about Possibility Island running pretty smoothly faded, the enthusiastic smile falling from her face as it was replaced by a frown.

The core soul memory that powered Possibility Island wasn't as vibrant as normal. In fact, it was flickering in its brightness, looking more faded.

Joy, of course, didn't dare to remove the core memory, but hurried back over to the console.

"Um, Riley?"

"What?"

Joy fiddled with her fingers, and the uncertain expression on her face immediately set the other emotions on edge. "Well, the core memory for Possibility Island is kind of... flickering."

Riley's head lifted up. "What?"

"WHAT?!"

Fear was the first to race over to the console, and before they got out of range of the sensory field, they could sense Riley's worry. Fear's purple skin grew paler as he noticed that the core memory was flickering in its brightness.

"Oh no! Oh no no no no no!" Fear darted back and forth, looking at the others. "Quick, everyone touch it at the same time! Maybe that will help!"

"Worth a shot!" Joy said, placing her finger on the core memory, the others quickly doing the same.

Nothing happened at first. Until the core memory's color faded even more.

Fear withdrew his hand immediately as if he had just been burned, then hurrying back to the console with the others in pursuit.

"The core memory for Possibility Island is flickering and we can't stop it!" Fear exclaimed.

"Does this mean you really _do_ hate us?" Sadness asked, looking even more droopy than usual.

"I told you already, _no_ ," Riley said.

Joy paused. Sure, she could understand Riley not feeling exactly cheerful after what had just happened, even more so after realizing that one of the core memories didn't seem as strong. But the last thing she wanted was to risk Gloom somehow setting in again—she wasn't sure if that was possible, as she hadn't really read the manuals, but she wasn't about to take any chances. "You got some ideas for the Mind World tonight?" the yellow emotion inquired hopefully.

"A few," Riley admitted.

Among the mixed emotions of the console, yellow flickered briefly into being. A blue-and-yellow memory rolled onto the shelves following a red-and-blue one.

Seeing the presence of yellow on a memory orb caused the emotions' expressions to ease a bit. True, the morning hadn't gone so well thus far, and it was still up in the air how the rest of the day would go, it was at least a relief to them to know that after everything, Riley still didn't want to cut off ties with them. On some level, she still liked them.

But Joy had to admit the core memory flickering in brightness was worrisome.

Heading to school, part of Riley dreading what was to come, Riley couldn't help but focus on the other people around her, pondering the possibilities of what their own Mind Worlds were like. Did all Mind Worlds look the same, but with different personality islands? If one group of emotions were to meet another, would it be impossible to tell them apart?

Were any of them going through something similar?

She knew that wasn't something she could just ask. Then she'd _really_ seem crazy.

She and her emotions could only hope that school would be better.

* * *

Back at the Andersen household, things weren't exactly as at peace as Bill and Jill had hoped they'd be. In fact, quite the opposite.

"I hoped that that talk would help us connect with what was going on!" Jill fretted, unable to sit down at the table and was instead pacing. "Not make it worse!"

"Easy, honey," Bill said, placing an arm on his wife's shoulder. "Maybe there's something else to this other than schizophrenia."

Mrs. Andersen put her hands on the sides of her head, her husband noticing that the frantic look on her face was one he had seen before: he had seen that same fear manifest on her face, and in his own mind, when Riley had run away a year ago. "Bill, what happened this morning was another symptom I read about. How she kept seeming to switch from one emotion to another? It's called labile mood and it's another symptom of schizophrenia." She pulled her phone, frantically typing into a search engine. "Bill, what if—"

"I don't think we should resort to calling a psychiatrist just yet, Jill," Mr. Andersen said carefully, know this wasn't a decision to be made lightly. "We can think about it, but..."

Jill looked up from her phone, staring at her husband helplessly for a moment, her shoulders then slumping as she let out a harsh sigh, placing a hand on her forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to will away the thoughts in her head concerning the possibility of her daughter having a mental illness. "Then what _can_ we do, Bill?"

Her husband sighed. "I don't know."

For a moment, nothing passed between them except an exchange of worried looks for their daughter's sake.

Finally, Jill forced herself to stand up. "I'm going to take a peek in Riley's room."

"Jill—"

"I know it's an invasion of her privacy, but there must be some clue about what's going on," Jill argued. "She needs us."

After a moment, Bill let out a sigh. "You're right. After that outburst this morning..." He let out a reluctant sigh. "That might be best."

The two moved out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs, back to the room they had just been in minutes earlier. They glanced around the room, anything in the immediate area they might have missed.

Moving a few of the papers on Riley's desk, Mrs. Andersen paused as she noticed a more colorful paper sticking out from behind Riley's school work, certainly not looking like something from a school project. She carefully shifted the papers away, bringing the hidden drawing into view. Or rather, as she noticed, drawings.

Jill Andersen stared at the picture, not knowing what to make of it. She felt a feeling of unease creep into her brain at the sight, but she couldn't place a reason for it.

Inside her head, however, the residents of her Headquarters most certainly could. Her emotions were in a stunned silence, slack-jawed. Until her Fear tugged firmly on a lever. .

Her Sadness's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Is that..."

But her words were interrupted by Jill's Fear looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"S-She KNOWS!" The purple emotion pointed a trembling hand at the view screen as if the others couldn't see it, pulling another lever to give Jill the vibr that this was indeed a very bad thing. "L-Look! T-There's Islands of Personality, and Headquarters, and, a-and—"

The nerve-like emotion reached at her part of the console and succeeded in pressing a few buttons just before Joy stopped her from doing anymore. Joy looked just as in awe as the others, but after a moment looked relieved.

"Maybe this means she doesn't quite have schizophrenia after all," Joy said hopefully. "If only we could ask her directly—"

"But what if she was lying and the voices weren't entirely positive?" Disgust pointed out. She leaned over and looked over at the others.

"Riley's a good girl," Sadness pointed out, "do you really think that her own emotions wouldn't have her best interests at heart and try to help her?"

"Well what about that outburst this morning?" Disgust countered.

The responses from the others were almost immediate.

"That's true..."

"So she might be hearing her emotions _and_ have severe schizophrenia?!"

"It could be one or the other."

"Either one is bad! Or it could be both! How do we know schizophrenics aren't hearing their emotions too?!"

"Easy," Sadness said gently. "Maybe she just has an accurate imagination."

"Or maybe she's just hallucinating everything and it isn't the Mind World after all!" Fear fretted. "Something might be wrong and her brain is mixing the Mind World with some imaginary world!"

Anger paused at that before speaking. "Maybe we _should_ call a psychiatrist to get a diagnosis."

Outside, of course, Mrs. Andersen wasn't aware of the verbal debate going on between the beings in her head. She could, however, feel their emotional influence, and right now they were all over the place.

She turned away from the drawings, glancing back over at her husband.

"Honey?"

"Yeah" Bill asked, turning and meeting her eyes.

"Take a look at this."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that could have gone better. Anyway, next chapter we'll see how school turns out, and if things turn out better for Riley at all in the day. Remember to review!**


	20. Mixed Emotions

**EDIT: I put this chapter through a huge rewrite regarding the test result, thus with a completely different outcome to fit the tone more and make more sense (also added a bit near the start regarding trying to get console control back). I wasn't able to edit it for a few hours after posting that and realizing that mistake due to being busy at the time, and by then there had been quite a few story updates that pushed this down to the bottom. So I wanted to give a update to bring that change to attention for those who looked earlier on the first time. I know that the change doesn't exactly give Riley a break, but I feel it works better for the story, both at present and for later.**

 **A/N: Okay, I owe you guys an explanation for why this chapter was so late. First off, my hiatus til after Valentine's Day. Why? Went on vacation, that's why! Hawaii was fun! Long plane rides, but still fun! Tip if you ever go: Kawaii is the island with all the lush forests and garden-like stuff, Honolulu is a city on Oahu that basically looks like a big city like LA or Philidelphia.**

 **Secondly, my desktop computer, as I found when I got back, broke down. Trying to get it fixed. Luckily I have my iPad and laptop, but iPads are a pain to type on and my laptop doesn't work as well. :p**

 **Thirdly... ever have that paradox where when you get working on something, you become more reluctant to finish it? That's what I felt with the chapter, and I wanted to cover, well, all the bases I wanted to cover, without it seeming rushed or the like, and I had a bit of writer's block. Luckily, soon enough we'll get into the chapters where writer's block isn't as much of an issue, because of the "stuff I've wanted to do since I thought of a plot for this" stuff. ;)**

 **So, with an aim to be able to update faster in the future, here we go!**

* * *

Bill turned at hearing his wife's call, noticing the papers she held in her hand. "What are these?" he asked quietly.

"They're drawings of Riley's I found hidden under some of her books," Mrs. Andersen said, looking cautiously at her husband. "I'm not exactly sure what they're supposed to mean, but..." she took a deep breath, "I can't help but feel a bit uneasy about them.

He gently took the pictures from her, looking at them himself and taking in their unusual details. His brow arched in confusion, not sure what to make of them.

With his emotions, however, it was a different story.

* * *

Bill's Anger leapt up from his chair, staring wide-eyed at the drawings as Bill got a closer look at them. The other emotions around him looked similarly shocked.

"Fear," he finally announced, causing his second in command to snap out of his stunned daze. "Are my eyes playing tricks, or are we looking at a Mind World drawing?"

"Appears to be affirmative, sir," Bill's Fear announced. "Console emotions, personality islands, memory orbs... everything checks out."

"But how could Riley know?" Disgust asked. He looked over at the others, sharing the same expression of surprise. "Look, there's clearly emotions at the console that look similar to us. There's no way she's just using a metaphor. Riley _knows_."

Anger put a hand to his chin, pacing in front of his chair slightly. "If Riley knows, this could hurt her. She's only 12, realizing there's an entire world in her head can't be good. Don't want to alarm the wife though..." After a moment, he got back in his chair. "Gentlemen, this is a delicate situation. We'll treat it rationally and talk with Riley later."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"Maybe it's just something creative for a story," Bill tried to assure his wife. "It might not have anything to do with the voices she's hearing."

"But it _might_ ," Jill reasoned. "Bill, look at how detailed this is."

"Riley's a creative girl," Bill pointed out. He managed a laugh to try to lighten the discomfort they both felt. "Remember Bing Bong?"

A sigh. "I know, but why wouldn't she show this to us? Why did she seem to want to hide it? And look at that console," she added, gesturing to the console in front of the five beings and noticing some of the labeled buttons. "Do you think maybe she's experiencing hallucinations and thinks they're controlling her actions?" Jill, understandably, looked horrified at the thought. "Honey, we _have_ to talk to her about this."

Bill paused at that, scanning all of the drawings' details. "I guess you're right. But she's not going to be too happy we went in her room to look."

"We'll wait for her to talk about it this evening," Jill said, taking the papers in her hands.

"Good idea," Bill agreed, "she seems distracted enough already, we don't want her feeling worse during hockey practice too."

* * *

"Should we prepare to go on Red Alert, sir?" Fear asked, his hand hovering over a button.

Anger _shook_ his head. "Not yet. We'll ask her about all this later." He glanced upward at the picture again as Bill took the pictures to look at them more closely. "Keep that button ready though; we may need to call someone about this."

* * *

Inside Jill's head, her emotions weren't faring too well about the matter either.

"I don't get it, though," Jill's Joy turned around to look over at Sadness "If she's hearing her emotions, can't they help her?"

"Because," Sadness said as she addressed the other emotions, "we don't know if that's the only thing that's going on. There could be another factor in it that the emotions can't quite help her with."

The others murmured in agreement.

"And... _look_ at her Mind World." Sadness gestured to the drawings, in particular seeming to focus on the personality islands. "Even if it is her emotions, I'm sure that the Mind World seems preferable to her than the human world." Sadness let out a sigh, clearly feeling distressed about the whole thing. "IF she loves it there too much, she might not see anything in the human world as mattering anymore."

Disgust looked over at her in surprise. "So you're saying that part of her might not see the human world as being good enough?"

Sadness gave a nod, her concern written all over her face. "Exactly. That could be why she's more distant, arguing with us, hiding things..."

"So what should we do?"

"The only thing we _can_ do," their leader said as their human walked with her husband out of Riley's room, "try to talk to her tonight."

* * *

As Riley drew closer to the school, her footsteps slowed. True, she had, for the moment, got out of talking more to her parents about what was going on, so she'd be able to avoid them for the time being.

But with that challenge for the moment avoided, she remembered there were plenty of new ones to be faced at school.

"I'm not sure what's worse at this point!" Fear fretted. "Facing Mom and Dad or facing everyone at school!"

"I'd go with 'everyone at school'," Disgust said. "At least Mom and Dad are willing to listen to Riley."

"Or send her to a psych ward," Anger said with a roll of his eyes. "You saw how they reacted!"

"Hey, Ann and Jordan are willing to listen too!" Joy argued. She faced straight ahead, a broad grin on her face as she swung a lever on the console—it didn't have any effect, but she hoped that somehow Riley would sense it and feel better. "They're your friends, they'll help!"

"But Tracy's there too," Riley reminded her glumly. She scowled, and the console turned a blend of red and purple. Tracy was one of the major reasons she wasn't looking forward to going back to school today. "And she's not exactly a 'friend'."

"Agh, I _hate_ that girl!" Anger scowled, the beginnings of flames threatening to show on his scalp. "How about you give her a punch today, Riley?"

"That'll just cause more trouble," Sadness insisted, quickly shooting down that idea.

"Besides," Joy said, "she might just stay away from us today."

Fear flinched, racing over to Joy and looking like he was fighting the urge to cover her mouth. "Joy, no! You said 'us'!"

"No, no, it's fine."

The others turned to the screen. While all they could see in front of them was the school as it towered over the kids, they could sense a small smile playing on Riley's mouth. It was faint though.

"... Really?" Disgust said after a moment.

 _Yeah,_ Riley went on, thankful that she was getting better at thinking to them. _You guys are with me, right? Sure, Tracy can't see you, but if she stays away from me, she's staying away from all of us._

Joy did a fist pump and a cheer at that. Maybe things were looking up a bit today after all. "See, Riley? Trust me, things are going to be a-okay the rest of the day!"

"Not likely," Anger pointed out, glaring a little. "There's Tracy, Ann, and Jordan to deal with, remember?"

"Well, sure," Joy admitted, "but we can work together to deal with that! Ignore Tracy, act normally around Jordan and Ann, things will be fine!"

Despite Joy's cheery tone, Riley couldn't quite share in the emotion's enthusiasm. Her feelings had finally begun to settle down after that whirlwind of a talk with Mom and Dad, and now she felt a little bit calmer. Still uneasy about facing her classmates, but not on the verge of outbursts like this morning.

She had to be calm. No strong emotional outbursts today. That had already gotten her in enough trouble.

After a pause, she thought to the emotions.

 _Hey,_ Sadness?

The blue emotion, surprised at being mentally addressed by their host, looked up a little from reading the Console Construction manual. "Yeah?"

 _What were you going to say before about the console lockout effects?_

"Oh, right..." Sadness flipped back a couple pages, finally finding the paragraph she had been looking for. " _Forced Console Lockout from inside Headquarters (not in direct response to circumstances in the outside world) can be a dangerous course of action. If any Emotion authorized to operate the console tries to set the console to only operate on their terms (or if the host tries the same if Mind World visitation occurs), there's a chance that **Emotional Response Variation** will be lessened for other Emotions—_ "

"In English?" Anger asked, getting quickly bored with the technical manual jargon.

Sadness sighed. "If the the console is forced into lockout for too long, there's a risk that Riley won't be able to feel as strongly."

Sadness's wording caused Riley to almost stop in her tracks, so stunned that she voiced her thoughts aloud. "You mean like Gloom?"

"Not quite," Sadness said. "You could still feel, but just a little."

"But what if then Gloom gets stronger?" Fear exclaimed, looking at the glowing console like one touch would have it short out. "What if the console gets all black and tar-y again? Just like last time—two emotions gone, three unbalanced—"

Riley shivered slightly. She never wanted to feel like that again.

"Hey, it's okay!" Joy quickly tried to assure the other five, "all of us are here now, Riley can talk to us, outside circumstances are fixable, things will be fine! What could—"

"Don't say it!" Fear cringed.

Joy trailed off. She had to admit that the answer to her nearly voiced-question could be a lot of things. But she wasn't about to let possibility ruin positivity.

 _Okay_ , Riley thought, _I'm going to give control back to you guys now, okay?_

Fear looked more relaxed at that, wiping sweat off his brow. "Whew, thank goodness! Then maybe things will be a bit more—"

The white glow on the console cycled through colors, then faded. Only for the white to appear again a second later.

"Um, Riley?" Fear called, his voice a bit high-pitched with unease. "You can give back control now."

The color faded. Then the white glow returned.

The emotions stared at the console before Sadness looked at the manual again.

 _Did it work now?_

"If by 'work' you mean 'flicked back to white'," Disgust said, looking warily at the console, "then yes."

It was then that Sadness looked up from the manual, raising her voice. "It says that the console reworking has to be done from inside Headquarters."

The other emotions' faces fell at that. As did Riley's.

The console turned purple just as Riley thought to them. _So I'm stuck like this all day?!_

"Unfortunately."

Blue joined purple on the console. After all, Riley had acted rashly in doing so in the first place.

Fear looked like he was going to have a heart attack. "We're doomed!"

"Hey, hey, we're not doomed!" Joy forced a smile, trying to give the other four emotions an encouraging look, and Riley as well. "We can get through this! All you have to do is ignore Tracy, and act normal around Ann and Jordan. Simple!"

Riley wished she could agree. _Easy for you to say. You're in my head. There's nothing 'normal' about this._

"Don't worry," Joy said, still determined to stay positive despite the problematic circumstances. "Everything will be fine!"

* * *

Unfortunately, Joy's hopeful optimism didn't exactly turn out to be right.

The moment Riley entered English and headed to her seat, she noticed that the demeanor of several kids in her class seemed to have changed. A few of them sneaking glances at her who ordinarily either said simply "hi" or didn't acknowledge her much.

The yellow of the console became joined by a blue shade, with the other colors following soon after. Riley averted her eyes.

"'Everything will be fine', huh?" Anger asked Joy sarcastically.

"They're looking at her!" Fear exclaimed, glancing out of the corners of Riley's vision. "I mean, differently than usual!"

"Don't make her feel worse!" Disgust pointed out, gesturing to the console that was now cycling through the different colors.

"We _can't_ make her feel worse!" Fear retorted, pointing at the console to indicate its constant white glow. "Or better!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if Tracy's been doing some talking," Anger grumbled, looking like he wanted to just get out of the Mind World, find Tracy, and punch her lights out. "That gossiping little—"

"Just ignore them, Riley!" Joy called, trying to help lift her host's mood in some way despite the console lockout.

 _How?_ Riley thought back as she sat down at her desk.

"We'll get through this together, nothing to worry about!"

"Actually Joy," Disgust pointed out, "I think it's _everything_ to worry about. Tracy spreading rumors isn't exactly going to help Riley's social status."

Riley sighed, more paying attention to what her internal voices were saying than the teacher's lesson.

"She's right," Fear said, already gathering up papers to jot down Worst Case Scenarios, "kids Riley's age can be very judgmental! One minute they can be best friends, then _bam_! Rumors fly and they hate you!"

"I hope that doesn't happen with Ann and Jordan," Sadness pointed out, closing the mind manual as she noticed Fear scribbling "lose Ann and Jordan's friendship" on his list. "They're two of your best friends."

 _They already think something's wrong with me,_ Riley thought.

"Well, you're doing okay so far!" Joy pointed out, looking at the thin white glow on the console. "I mean, the console's not going haywire anymore."

 _True._

Much to Riley's relief, no one seemed to call her out on potentially being crazy for hearing voices. Either they didn't believe Tracy's story, or they were nice enough not to mock Riley for it.

But she thought she could still feel stares on her, and a bit of purple and green lit up the console.

"Don't be bothered by them, Riley," Joy said. "We'll get you through this!"

"It's hard to focus when you have eyes staring at you though," Fear pointed out.

And Riley had to admit that the frantic purple nerve was right.

* * *

For Riley and the emotions, her morning classes went alright. Not great, not terrible, just... alright.

Luckily no one tried to bully her, though she did feel a few glances in her direction on occasion. Whether they were just casual looks or wary glances due to her hearing voices, she didn't know, and she wasn't keen on trying to find out.

However, something did happen that only the emotions, primarily, noticed.

Riley didn't raise her hand at all to say that she knew an answer even when she clearly did, even encouragement from her emotions not seeming to help. And when she did reply, there wasn't much confidence in her voice as there would be if Joy could get by the control lockout that Riley had enforced.

She stiffened slightly when she entered her History classroom, seeing Tracy look up from the back row to stare at her. For a moment, Tracy's eyes narrowed, like she was going to say something.

"Walk faster!" Fear pleaded. "Just hurry to your desk and don't make eye contact!"

Riley, trying not to feel afraid, simply gave Tracy a passing glance and quickly sit down, holding up her textbook. Less interaction she had with that girl, the better.

Aside from that brief moment, her early morning classes went decently, passing without much trouble.

Joy tried to at least help Riley get one answer through. She hadn't been participating all morning, and the more she hid away, the more people would think something was wrong.

The teacher, Mrs. Augustine, wore a deep gold dress with a red necklace, hair tied back in a bun—in fact, more than a few times her students had joked about her having time-traveled from Ancient Rome and deciding she liked the 21st century.

"Alright, today we're going to continue with our discussion of the Roman Empire..."

Anger actually smiled. "Roman Empire, my favorite time in history!"

Disgust stared at him. "Why would _that_ be your favorite time in history?"

"Hey, have you _seen_ the Colosseum?" Anger pointed out with a rare genuine smile on his face. "Everyone's in a ring fighting each other, what's not to like!"

Disgust just groaned.

"Alright, now who can tell me in what year the Roman Empire was founded, and by who?"

"Come on, Riley, you know that answer!" Joy urged, trying to press the memory recall button. "The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC!"

"I don't think she's gonna—"

To Anger's surprise, it seemed as if a press of the memory recall button was one console action Riley's lockout was allowing them to perform. The glass recall tube descended from the ceiling as the golden memory popped into view and projected from the Mind's Eye.

"Huh," Anger said. "So she does let us do that after all."

But Riley didn't say a word right away. She just looked down. Finally, after a moment, she raised her hand.

"27 BC."

"Correct, Riley! And by who?"

"Octavius, called himself Augustus."

"Seems like someone's been paying attention! Great job, Riley!"

Aside from a slight smile, Riley barely acknowledged her.

* * *

While the morning classes went okay, things started to go wrong around the time Riley got her lunch out of her locker.

"Hey, Riley," a voice said behind her, "how's your voices today?"

Riley stiffened, knowing that voice anywhere. She fought for the console to stay white as it had through much of the morning. "Leave me alone, Tracy."

"What? I can't be concerned? Don't you know people who hear voices go psycho?"

Riley didn't need to turn around to be able to tell that Tracy was mocking her. The other girl's voice practically was oozing sarcasm regarding her 'concern', at least concern in the way Ann, Jordan, and her parents were.

Joy frowned, stepping toward the console. "Need help, Riley?"

 _Thanks, but no,_ Riley thought, not letting the white glow on the console falter. _Tracy will think I'm weirder than she already does. I want to try this._

Tracy didn't seem satisfied with not getting a verbal response from Riley. "No, seriously, I'm concerned," the other girl said, moving slightly so she was to Riley's left right, next to her open locker door. Her voice wasn't quite as mocking now. "You ought to get that checked out if you're hearing them. It's freaky."

"If I were you, I'd punch her!" Anger said, his fingers practically digging into his palms as he slammed the console on impulse. But the console remained white.

Riley shut her eyes, not wanting to get into this right now. She quickly removed her books from her locker, slamming it shut. "I said, leave me _alone_."

"You can't run away from them forever, Riley Andersen!" Tracy called. "Or those schizophrenia voices will cause you to hurt people!" There was genuine unease in the other girl's voice. "Seriously, tell someone!"

Riley ignored her.

* * *

At lunch, Riley merely picked at her food. Strawberries, a grilled cheese sandwhich, water, a cookie. _Standard stuff._

"Well, so far things have been going... okay," Joy admitted. "Tracy hasn't been bothering you much, and you got a chocolate chip cookie for lunch!" She looked up hopefully. "That's a reason to be happy, right?"

For a moment, the console stayed white, but then a little yellow shone through. The emotions felt Riley smile as she munched on the cookie.

 _Hey, guys?_

"Yeah, Riley?"

Riley exhaled. So far her attempt with guiding her own emotions was going decently, but not working out like she hoped her attempt would. But it was clear the emotions, despite their mishaps from before, were willing to help.

In fact, she had to admit if she told them her plan, it could work out easier.

 _Okay... I think I may have an idea to solve the whole 'people think I'm crazy' thing. I mean, if it's even possible to do..._

The emotions looked up in surprise.

"Really?" Joy asked. "You do?"

 _Yeah. I mean, it's sort of a crazy idea, but..._ They heard Riley exhale. _I had the idea last night along with the console thing and, I didn't tell you at all before because I was afraid you wouldn't like it._

"Well, what is it?" Fear asked, not liking the suspense. "Because I already don't like this!"

There was a pause before Riley replied.

 _Okay, so the 'feeling for myself' part of the idea hasn't been working out too well, so... is there anything in the manuals that says emotions can be seen outside their host?_

Silence greeted her.

"... What." Anger was the first to speak.

 _I'm not even sure if that's a thing that can be possible, and I know it sounds crazy,_ Riley thought to them quickly _. And probably dangerous._

"Not to mention that might be like losing one of us all over again!" Fear exclaimed, looking like he disapproved of the idea wholeheartedly. "That's a bad, _bad_ consciousness tampering idea and you can't do that!"

 _And_ that's _why I didn't want to say anything to you guys._

Fear clammed up.

 _Thing is,_ Riley thought, _if there's something that allows an emotion or something to get out, there's a way to bring them back in. I saw Bing Bong when I was younger, right?_

"But Bing Bong was imaginary!" Fear pointed out, looking he was about to faint at the idea Riley was proposing.

 _Well if he could somehow show himself Outside, why can't you guys?_ Riley took a bite out of her grilled cheese sandwich, continuing to mentally talk to them.

"But he could only be seen by you!"

 _Exactly. He was imaginary. Only I could see him since I made him up. But you guys have been with me since i was born, I didn't make you. I mean, think about it. You guys aren't imaginary, you're beings who live in another dimension who I need in order to feel properly most of the time. So if you guys can come out, unlike Bing Bong, other people might be able to see you! Then everyone will know, and no one will think I'm crazy! It will solve everything!_

The emotions looked at one another. The emotions could feel the smile on Riley's face as she thought-spoke, but not all of them seemed keen on the idea.

Joy's eyes lit up. "That actually might work!" she exclaimed, swinging a lever even though it didn't cause Riley to react. "Then Tracy won't call you crazy because she'll know!"

"No, that's a _terrible_ idea!" Fear countered. "People aren't supposed to know they have Mind Worlds! You'll destroy people's lives! Besides, it's crazy, it might not even be possible!"

 _I don't have to tell them about the Mind World,_ Riley thought, _they'll just know you're real and I'm not making you up. Then you guys can just make up a story, you can leave, and no one will ever bother me about it again. They won't have to know I'm hearing voices anymore!_

"Or they'll just go looking for us like alien hunters!" Anger grumped, crossing his arms.

 _Not if you never appear again. So? Is it possible?_

For a second, all five emotions paused. Then Sadness found herself getting looks from the other four.

" _You're_ the mind manual expert," Disgust pointed out.

"Well, um..." Sadness looked away and glanced toward the shelves of mind manuals, put a bit on the spot. "I don't know. I never read anything about it..."

"Me either," Fear added.

 _Well we can look tonight,_ Riley thought. _I can try to lucid dream again, we'll find it if there's anything there, decide if it's worth the risk, and things will be okay._

"But that's so drastic!" Fear exclaimed. "We could get hurt! And _you_ could get hurt!"

 _You won't be out all the time,_ Riley assured him. _Just once. Maybe even one of you. That's all I need. We'll see if it's possible and then we'll really think about it overnight._

After a moment, Sadness let out a sigh. "Okay," she said. "I'm not sure if there's anything about that but—"

"It's worth a shot," Riley said vocally..

"What's worth a shot?"

Riley had been so caught up in her internal conversation that an external voice surprised her. She looked up to see Ann sitting beside her.

"Oh, um..." Riley tried to think of a response, the console settling back into white. "Just, uh, trying to be quiet during Psychology."

Ann frowned. "You're not letting Tracy get to you again, huh?"

Riley shrugged.

"Are you okay? Ann asked. "You've seemed kind of distracted all day. And yesterday."

"I'm fine," Riley said, eating a strawberry. "Where's Jordan?"

"Talking with his Spanish teacher last I saw," Ann said with a frown. "Apparently he bombed the test."

"Ouch."

Riley's friend stared at her, features shifting into a frown. "That didn't sound very sympathetic."

"Huh?" Riley looked up at her friend, trying to pay more attention.

"I mean, you don't sound like you're really feeling sorry for him."

The console in Riley's head flashed blue for a moment just before Sadness could attempt to touch it herself. "Yeah, that stinks. Maybe he'll do better on his next test."

"I hope so," Ann said, giving Riley a queer look. "Maybe that Biology test will work out better."

Inside Riley's head, Fear swallowed at that. "I'm just hoping the test's not graded yet!"

When Riley repeated Fear's verbal worry, Ann laughed a little. "You nervous?"

"Yeah," Riley said. "I am."

"Me too." The smile fell from Ann's face, and not just from sympathy with her friend's nerves, feeling very uneasy about the test grade herself. Sure, Riley said she was feeling nervous, but she didn't look or sound nervous. Or happy at seeing Ann there. Or much of anything.

 _What's wrong with Riley?_

* * *

"Alright everyone! I'm going to hand you back your tests!"

Riley flinched in her seat. Getting through English, Math, and History had been fine with not too many problems, and even most of Biology had gone okay. But just when it seemed she'd be fine for the day, the test was rearing its ugly head. The white glow that had been mostly stuck on the console through a good portion of the day was now beginning to have more color again, purple being the first one to flash into being. The others followed suit.

"The test!" Fear cried, looking just as on edge as Riley right now, any semblance of gold on the console being replaced by purple, with some green mixed in as well.. "I didn't think they'd get graded _already_!" A memory orb with those corresponding colors, rimmed by white as now seemed the standard when Riley was in command, rolled onto the shelves to clink against the primarily gold one.

"Teachers are a slippery bunch," Anger grumbled, prying the purple emotion off of the console so as not to make things worse for Riley. "Even when they act like they're giving you good news, it's bad news!"

"Okay, okay, stay calm, everyone!" Joy said, quickly looking around at the others to try to calm them. "We know Riley aced it."

"Of course we do!" Fear cried, looking not at all comforted by Joy's statement as his eyes only widened further. "We helped her!"

Riley tensely waited at her desk, her fingers gripping the edge. Ordinarily, she would be thrilled to know that she got a great score on a test. But this was different—she had used other people to help. Granted, they were in her head, but she still couldn't deny that they weren't her, and they had helped.

Eventually, the test was slid onto Riley's desk, with the packet flipped face down as was the standard to avoid any cries of "I got a higher grade than you!" from students. Part of Riley was almost afraid to turn it over, the console flashing purple to reflect her unease.

After a few tense seconds, Riley flipped over and saw the circled grade at the top.

 _96%_.

"96, good job, Riley!"

Despite Joy's cheerful attitude, an encouragement for Riley's subconscious console control to turn it gold, Riley couldn't help but let sadness creep in the more she looked at the grade. Flipping through the packet, she realized that she had indeed gotten almost everything right, just missing a few points on the word problems when she had a change of heart regarding her test-taking method.

The color of Riley's console cycled through the spectrum, even becoming devoid of color for an instant among them. The emotions tensed at this, but said nothing. Memory orb after memory orb clinked onto the shelves.

The console lit up with purple and red simultaneously, and the emotions heard Riley's voice. _I'm not sure what to feel here, okay?! Help me out here!_

Riley felt conflicted as she stood, seeming to move in slow motion as the other students filed out of the room. How was she going to admit this? What should she feel?

Happy that she was going to finally be courageous enough to confess about the test?

Sad that she was probably going to have to retake it and get a lower grade?

Disgusted with using the emotions to give her the answers in the first place?

Angry at herself for the same reason?

Afraid of getting in trouble?

Nothing, to avoid losing it with her emotional confusion?

Part of her knew it would be easy to just walk away and not fess up to what happened. Get the grade, have them all celebrate, everyone would be none the wiser.

But she possessed Honesty Island as part of her personality for a reason, and knew that guilt would probably be in the back of her mind even more if she didn't confess.

Honesty won out.

Riley took a deep breath, the console finally settling into a light mix of everything. She cleared her throat.

"Um, Ms. Karol? Can I talk to you?"

The teacher looked up. "Sure thing, Riley. Have to say I'm quite impressed. You must have studied really hard."

There came the guilt again, the colors of the console a little less muted now. A feeling of fear overtook Riley's thoughts before she tried to force her thoughts back to a more neutral state.

"Well I..."

Joy moved a bit closer to the console. Even though she knew her touch would do nothing at this point, she thought that maybe the action of moving closer to Riley's sight would better help the young girl sense her encouragement. "You can do this, Riley!"

Riley sent a mental "Thanks" to her before finally focusing on her teacher, who was staring at her with concerned eyes. "I don't deserve that grade."

"Riley, what do you mean?" Ms. Karol placed her papers for the day into a brown folder and folded her hands on her desk, giving the 11-year-old a concerned look. "You did fantastic, why do you think you don't deserve it?"

"I..." Now or never. Before she could make the decision to just run out of there, Riley picked up her test and put it on Ms. Karol's desk, the 96% sticking out like a warning button that wasn't to be pressed."... I sort of cheated on the test."

Fear, who had been gripping the console as if he could just tug Riley away from the situation, let go once those words left Riley's mouth. "She's doomed!"

Fighting to keep any emotional response in check, Riley waited, starting to feel more tense despite this as Ms. Karol regarded her for a second.

"Riley," she began, her voice not exactly angry but more curious, "how did you cheat? I was watching everyone closely and I didnt see anyone slide any papers under their tests, or looking at their phones."

"That lady has eyes like a _hawk_!" Fear managed to whisper.

"So, Riley," the woman's voice was a little more stern, but trying to be understanding. "How did you cheat?".

Riley bit her lip.

"Oh sure," Anger said, "I'm sure Riley can just say 'I had my little emotion friends in my head give me all the answers!'"

The fact that she had to say something else besides that caused Riley's thoughts to go into a brief whirl, but she tried to calm down. Emotional outbursts wouldn't do good here. Even so, she cast her eyes more down toward the floor rather than her teacher's eyes "I... I kind of played the answers over and over again in my head before the test so I'd know all the answers."

WHen Ms. Karol spoke again, her voice didn't seem quite as harsh as before. "But if that was before the test, there's nothing wrong with trying to do that to improve memory."

The emotions then heard Riley's voice practically shout to them. _What do I do?!_

Joy tried to think of something. "Just say you used equipment, that's truthful!"

"But she'll get in trouble for cheating!" Fear cried.

"Well what do ya expect her to do, lie _more_?" Disgust pointed out. She gestured out toward the Islands of Personality. "You've forgotten Honesty Island's been kind of breaking down lately. Once you lie, it gets easier to keep lying!"

Joy glanced out worriedly at the island, taking a deep breath as she turned toward the viewscreen. "Riley," she said, "just tell her the equipment thing. I mean, the memory orbs and Mind's Eye _are_ techhnically equipment, and it's as close to the truth as you can get without telling about... us."

"Yeah," Riley admitted. "I... I used equipment to hear the answers during the test too." It was technically the truth, just leaving out the Mind World stuff. She looked down, unable to look her teacher in the eyes. The console in her head was rapidly cycling through the emotions.

The teacher sighed. "Riley," she finally said with disappointment, "I'm very disappointed in you. I know you're a smart girl, you've shown before you have better integrity than that."

The cycling through of the colors stopped completely, the console remaining white. However, as the intensity faded, it looked a bit different than the consistent white glow it had all morning. It seemed a bit more like a blank gray, though perhaps the fact that the light was dimmer caused it to have that appearance.

"Um," Fear squeaked, looking uneasily at the console. "What's going on?"

"I think Riley's not really sure what to feel here," Sadness said back, carefully looking at the console.

Riley hung her head. Relief filled her mind that she had mostly told the truth, but it was overtaking by other feelings of regret, anger, and fear that she had cheated, and was likely going to get punished for it.

"I'm sorry," she finally said. But even though the words came out of her mouth, Riley couldn't really feel sorry, and this lack of regret on the matter showed in her voice. Even though Riley genuinely was sorry, in the teacher's eyes, she wasn't really expressing it.

The teacher took the test back from Riley, shaking her head before giving Riley a look of disappointment that filled Riley with regret as the console turned blue and purple. "Riley," she said firmly, "I'm going to have to have you come by after school tomorrow and retake the test again."

Giving the teacher a nod, not sure what else to say except an "Okay,", Riley stepped out of the classroom. And as she did, something was going on in the Mind World.

The emotions heard what sounded like a shimmering wave of energy coming from the personality islands, causing them all to turn around. Fear was the first one to race forward.

The purple emotion's face broke into a rare grin at what he saw. Like a spell had been cast over Honesty Island, the cracks in the Temple of Truth repaired themselves, bringing the Island's spark back.

"Hey, guys," he called. "I think that worked. Honesty Island's repaired itself!" Though the purple emotion was relieved the island had returned to its normal state, he wasn't at all happy about the circumstances. When he raced back to the others, the relief at Honesty Island's repair faded from his face as the reality of the consequences set in.

"... Well," Joy said, trying to keep things positive. "Honesty Island's back, that's one thing good, right?"

The others just looked at her.

"... Right?"

"Yeah," Anger said bitterly. " _One_ good thing."

"And at what cost?" Disgust retorted. "There's rumors going around, Riley admitted she cheated and she got in trouble, this is very bad for her social status."

Without saying another word, Riley hurried out the door.

While Riley was beginning to feel a sense of relief that she confessed as fully as she could to what she felt was cheating without bringing up her Mind World, she couldn't help but have flickers of guilt and shame return in small bursts. On the bright side, Honesty Island was repaired by the sound of it, but the consequences Outside weren't exactly the best. Now she had to retake the test again. And get a bad mark on her record.

"Um, hey," Joy said, trying to find some way to lighten the mood, "Honesty Island's back to normal, that's a good thing, right?"

Riley didn't say or think a word to them.

"Riley?" Sadness asked, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

The emotions looked at one another.

"I would think you'd be angry!" Anger pointed out. "Punch the wall or something, the teacher shouldn't have you take the test again!"

"Don't think like that!" Joy urged, trying to stay positive in spite of everything. "Feel relieved you get another chance!"

"No!" Fear protested. "You should feel scared that she'll call Mom and Dad!"

Riley stiffened. She hadn't even thought about _that_ possibility.

"Guys, guys!" Joy raced over to the other emotions, trying to calm them down and not have them suggest more negative outlooks to Riley. "There's still ways to fix this!" She directed her attention toward the screen of Riley's sight. "Just study hard for the test again and you'll be fine."

Riley shrugged.

Joy tried to think of something, anything that might help lighten the mood. "And you've only got Psychology, Computer Class, and Physical Science, so—"

"Tracy's in Psych class, remember?" Riley interrupted bitterly.

Joy looked a bit embarrassed in having forgotten that particular detail. "Oh, right."

Just as there was a moment for silence inside Riley's head, however, another voice brought her back into verbal communication with those on the outside.

"Hey, Riley! How'd you do?"

Broken out of her thoughts, Riley noticed Ann hurrying beside her, Jordan following suit. "Did you get held up by the teacher or something? How'd you do on the test?"

"Answer the question _with_ a question!" Fear cried.

Riley decided to take Fear's advice and dodged the question. "Well, um, how'd you guys do?"

Jordan shrugged. "I got a 73. Not _great_ , but if it weren't for that study session I probably would have gotten a D or something."

"Well, at least you passed," Ann pointed out. "I was so nervous about how I did I was practically shaking in my seat! You know how you can feel confident on something but then you keep having second thoughts?"

"So, how _did_ you do?" Riley asked, feeling a little curious in spite of herself.

"I got an 85," Ann said proudly. "Those word problems were _hard_! So what about you?"

"I, uh... I..." Riley trailed off, not looking at them as she speed-walked away from them. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Come on, tell us!" Ann argued. "You said you thought you aced it!"

"You can't have done _that_ bad," Jordan said. "I mean, you had that good idea of recording your voice while studying, maybe I should try that."

"I thought you hated how your voice sounds on recording," Ann joked, giving him a nudge.

"That's why _you're_ the lead singer of Anonymous Nachos and not me," Jordan pointed out dismissively.

In Riley's head, in spite of the tense situation, Disgust couldn't help but sigh. "Why _'_ d they come up with that name?"

"That's what happens when you can't think of a band name and just generate a random one," Anger muttered.

"I still think Atomic Alibi sounds better, but whatever," Ann said before looking at Riley. "Hey, you want to come over my house after school? We're gonna be practicing for that band competition next week, remember?"

"That's a good idea!" Joy argued. "Come on, rock music, that sounds fun! It'll help you feel better!"

"I guess," Riley said with a shrug.

Joy blinked. "Huh?"

Outside Riley's head, Jordan had an identical reaction. Ann looked like she was trying to understand what Riley was going through, feeling a mixture of frustration and concern. Mostly concern. She frowned. "Riley, what's with you?"

"Huh?"

"You're acting a lot spacier than usual and you're not saying much. You seem like you barely care about anything today!"

"Great, Ann's being nosy," Anger grumbled.

"She's just trying to help," Sadness pointed out, frowning in disapproval.

"Well, she and Jordan aren't helping now!"

Riley shut her eyes. Trying not to feel things strongly wasn't working out, and when she tried, she was finding feeling anything harder to accomplish. With her parents bugging her, Tracy stalking her, failing the test, and her friends pestering her, to say Riley was in a bad mood was an understatement.

"Riley? Please, what's wrong?"

Inside her head, Riley's console flickered briefly to green before settling to a mix of blue and red. "I _failed_ the test because I cheated, okay?!"

Ann and Jordan just stared at her for a moment as she stormed off. Finally processing what their friend had just said, they raced after her.

"You what?!" Ann cried. " _You_? Riley, I _know_ you, you'd _never_ cheat!"

Riley just kept walking, each footstep more like a slam on the ground as she hurried off. "I-I was stressed, I knew I'd fail otherwise, I didn't know what to do."

"Do you get to retake it?" Jordan asked worriedly.

"Yeah."

"Then it's not so—"

" _No,_ Jordan," Riley snapped, whirling around at him. "It's terrible! I'm probably gonna get a bad mark on my record now! Even if I do actually ace it this time!"

Jordan looked hurt at Riley's outburst.

"Riley, I have a feeling there's something more than the test that's bothering you." Ann put a hand on Riley's shoulder. "What's wrong—"

The console flared red and blue. The emotions leapt back in alarm at the sudden change as Riley moved harshly away from her friend's touch.

"It's _nothing else_ , okay?! Just _stop_!"

Ann immediately withdrew her hand, her eyes wide at Riley's outburst, and Jordan appeared just as shocked.

"Riley!" Joy called, racing toward the console and quickly gesturing for Sadness to follow, hoping they'd get through to her, the clinking of multicolored memory orbs coming onto the shelves like marbles. "Calm down!"

"Please," Sadness pleaded. "For us!"

"I can't!" Riley finally shouted, in too much distress to think. "I..." She noticed Ann and Jordan still staring at her, and quickly shook her head. "I, I may come over after hockey, I don't know. I have a lot on my mind right now!"

"Riley, wait!"

" _Leave me alone!_ "

As Riley's console cycled through the emotional colors, Sadness firmly pressed a button when she saw it flash blue, hoping to get some sort of response from Riley.

It worked, if only briefly, Riley's "console lockout" feeling in sync with her emotions. Regret washed over Riley as she turned briefly toward her friends. Tears fell from her eyes, voice breaking as she raced toward Psychology class

"I'm... I'm sorry, just... leave me alone..."

She didn't turn to look at her friends following her, trying to ignore whatever they said. She knew that Tracy would be in Psych class too, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with her. Or anything.

Riley sped-walked as much as she could to the classroom, opening the door and seeing she had arrived before most of the other kids in the class. She hurried to her desk and set her later class books under her desk before propping her testbook upright. With a regretful pause, she slammed her head on the desk's surface.

 _I just want today to be over._

Fear clutched his head. "I can think of just about 37 ways things can get worse!"

It was in that moment when a rumbling was heard outside Headquarters.

Fear, briefly freezing up, then ran over past the core memory holder, staring out at the islands as the others hurried after him.

"Guys?" he called. "We have a new problem."

The emotions' eyes widened as they saw what Fear was talking about. While Honesty Island had been repaired, one of the structures of Friendship Island was on the verge of falling.

"Make that _two_ new problems," Sadness said as she pointed at the core memory holder.

The others turned. While most of the core memories looked the same, the memory that powered Possibility Island was cycling through all the colors, just as the console had done. It then stayed white.

"This is bad."

* * *

 **A/N: After seeing _Riley's First Date?,_ as well as realizing that Ann's Headquarters in Inside Out's credits ha** **s a guitar in the background, I thought, "Hey, what if they're actually in the same band?" So I rolled with it. :)**

 **As for Riley's plan of seeing if the emotions can come out of her mind for a bit? Believe it or not, that was going to be in the film too. Joy was going to be able to come out of Riley's mind and hang around on her shoulder, going back in her mind when she had to go back to work. And when Joy got lost outside of Riley's mind, the others would go out to find her. So I figured, "More inclusion-of-movie-points-that-could-have-been time!"**

 **Also, regarding Riley's confession and the matter of cheating and Honesty Island being damaged/repaired. For Riley's mind, what matters is what she feels about the situation. Regardless of if her actions were cheating her not, in her mind, she thinks it was cheating, and aspects of Riley's mind operates on what she knows and feels. At least that's how I see it.**

 **Well, seems like the day so far was a mixed bag for Riley, starting out okay then getting worse. We'll see how next chapter goes, which I plan to have up much sooner! Remember to review, and see you next chapter!**


	21. Color Turns to Gray

**A/N: Back everyone! Finally starting to get back on the old update schedule again! Also, for those of you who reviewed last chapter when it was first posted, I changed the test confession outcome and thus the end of the chapter, so you may want to check that out. ;)**

 **Side note, I saw Zootopia last weekend and I loved it! And Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!... though this isn't exactly the happiest of chapters. ^^;**

 **So here, we'll see how psychology goes, and hopefully it's an improvement over the morning... onward we go!**

* * *

The emotions looked at one another, then at the core memory for Possibility Island. While it had returned to a white shade as before, it didn't seem quite as bright as it once had been.

"Ahh!" Fear cried, looking wide-eyed at the dimmed core memory. "What's going on?!"

"I don't know..." Joy crept closer to the memory, reaching her hand toward it as if hoping it would react to her presence. It did nothing. "Maybe it's something with the console lockout..." She looked over at her glasses-wearing companion. "Sadness?"

The blue emotion looked at the core memory, then craned her neck to look over at the console. The dulled white glow matched. "I think it's because of Riley's console lockout. That core memory's linked to Riley, so her not being able to feel things as strongly is affecting it." Her blue eyes sparkled as if she were trying not to cry. "Riley doesn't feel as strongly about that time with us anymore."

"Great, so she hates us," Anger snapped.

Sadness shook her head. "No, that's not it, it's just..." Her gaze rest on the core memory, the color in it swirling like a fog. "She isn't sure _what_ to feel about this anymore."

There was a silence shared among the emotions. They then turned back toward the console.

"Should we tell her?" Disgust whispered.

"She should know," Sadness advised. "Right now I don't think anything we try is gonna work. She's the only one who can fix this."

Joy nodded her agreement, hurrying over back to the main controls with the others.

 _How's things in there?_

Riley's thought to them made it clear that she realized something was up, and she wasn't looking forward to hearing more bad news. If anything, her voice sounded more resigned. Not bitter, not hopeful, just... well, not quite apathetic, but nearing there. And that unnerved every one of the five in Headquarters.

" _Well_ ," Joy began slowly, "things, um, could be better—"

"More like could be way better!" Anger interjected. "Hate to break it to you, Riley, but Friendship Island's taken a hit, and Possibility Island's core memory's going out of whack!"

 _What do you mean?_ The console flashed a combination of purple and blue, with red joining it before those colors were absorbed into white once more.

"It was cycling through the different emotional colors, and now it's white again, but a bit grayer."

Following Anger's words, there was utter silence from Riley as she kept blankly staring at the text of her book, the letters blurring in her vision. The console stayed a misty white.

Riley glanced over as she heard a chair shift beside her and turned her head to face the source of the noise. Ann was sitting next to her and staring with an expression that was mix of worry and hurt.

"Riley?"

"What?"

"Why'd you lash out like that before?"

Riley shrugged.

Ann's voice grew a bit softer. "What's wrong?"

Riley only stared at Ann in response, blinking once before turning away with a sigh.

"Riley, please..."

Tears pricked at the corners of Riley's eyes as she covered up her face with her arms, but she didn't acknowledge her friend.

The psychology room was filled with the voices of students filing in and taking their seats. Joy heard a voice that she recognized as Tracy's, talking to another girl.

"I seriously think she has problems."

"Well, she _has_ seemed kinda moody all day."

"I'm betting it's schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Probably schizophrenia, she hears voices!"

"Tracy, don't jump to conclusions..."

"I'll show you and ask Mr. O'Brian."

Riley propped her elbows on her desk, resting her chin in her hands. She dimly followed Tracy with her gaze, feeling a flare of emotion.

Her hands balled into fists. The console turned red and a new memory sphere fell into place.

In Headquarters, none of the emotions were sure what to say. Psychology sure wasn't going to give Riley or them any relief today.

Just as Joy opened her mouth to break the uncomfortable silence, Riley's voice echoed through Headquarters.

 _Can you fix the memory?_ There was that near-apathetic tone in her mental voice again.

"No can do, Riley," Disgust said, watching the red fade on the console. "You kinda need to be in here with us."

"Based on what Sadness did a few minutes ago, our emotional input needs to be perfectly in sync with what you want," Anger pointed out. "Otherwise all we get is this!" He slammed his fist on a console button and got the buzzer noise in response, the noise itself causing Anger to look like he wanted to explode.

 _Maybe I can sleep during psych,_ Riley thought to them, tiredly rubbing her eyes.

"But you can't miss a lesson!" Fear argued back, noticing that the teacher hadn't arrived quite yet. "What if Mr. O'Brian talks about something important?"

 _More stuff about memory and emotion, so?_ Riley snapped.

Fear jumped backwards a bit, his hands close to his body as if Riley had just smacked him. "I mean, you didn't even bring the outline—"

 _It's not like he knows what's_ really _going on in my head._

Sadness cast a doubtful glance over at the console, the graying color admittedly unnerving her. "To tell you the truth, Riley... I don't think _any_ of us know."

Fear swallowed, his chest feeling tight. It seemed like everything today was spiraling down, and what he had just heard from Tracy already crossed one possibility off his list. And class hadn't even really started yet!

Just as that thought entered Fear's mind, the door opened and Mr. O'Brian entered, his notebook in tow. The students placed their own textbooks and notebooks on their desks, Riley rummaging through her stuff until she found a pencil.

"Alright class," Mr. O'Brian announced. "How's everyone doing?"

"Good!"

"Fine!"

"Great!"

"Meh," Riley mumbled.

"Wonderful," the teacher said, not having heard Riley's quiet reluctance among the louder students. "Now for today, if you look at your syllabus—"

"I don't think you've even looked at it since you got it, Riley," Anger grumped in Riley's head.

"—we're going to be talking about how emotion and memory relate to another, somewhat more controversal aspect of psychology."

This seemed to grab the other students' attention. Riley only placed her book down and stared at him with a blank expression.

"Today we're going to segue into starting our lesson on various mental disorders."

Riley's head shot up at that, noticing Ann out of the corner of her eye trying not to look at her too much. A few seats away, Tracy craned her neck to look over at Riley, her eyes narrowed as if suspicious, like she could get some sort of joy out of taunting Riley right now. However, Tracy's eyes then seemed to have a flicker of fear to them.

* * *

Inside Tracy's head, her five emotions were unsure what to do.

"We oughta just stand up and say that Riley has schizophrenia!" said her Disgust, storming around their Headquarters and giving the others a stern look.

"Good idea!" Joy exclaimed. "Just wait until the teacher starts talking about schizophrenia, Tracy raises her hand, bam!" A grin lit up her face as she high-fived Disgust. "Riley's out of class and she won't hurt us!"

"Don't you think that's a bit, um, much?" asked Tracy's Sadness, adjusting the blue clip in her hair and giving the others a disapproving look. "I mean, she hasn't hurt us."

"Yet! But she could!" argued Tracy's Fear, practically shaking Sadness before he raced to the console. "She could lash out and hurt us, and regardless she could destroy Tracy's mind!"

"She did take Ann away from us," Anger snarled. "Then again, Ann wasn't as cool as we thought—"

"But she was still kind of our friend," Disgust bit back. "And now Miss Nutcase blew up at her! If she did that to Ann, why not us?"

"You're right!" Fear cried. "You heard what Ann said! Riley probably hit her or something or had a psychotic breakdown! And we could be next! It's only a matter of time before she snaps!"

Tracy's Anger glanced at Fear, then Disgust, before giving them a wave with her hand. "Argh, you guys just go over to the console and take care of this."

"Hey," Disgust said. "I'm the one who calls the shots here!" But the leader of Tracy's mind had to admit that Anger was right: not bother Riley Andersen too much right now, but keep careful tabs on her.

"Can't we just ignore her?" Sadness asked.

Tracy's Disgust sighed as she pressed a button on the console. "Sadness, _what_ have we talked about before regarding empathy toward Riley?"

Sadness groaned.

"Joy, tell her."

Tracy's Joy made her way past the chairs and tapped Sadness on the shoulder. "Remember what we talked about?"

Tracy's Sadness let out a low sigh. "Riley is a dangerous friend-stealer."

"Exactly!" Joy beamed.

"But Riley's only 12," Sadness protested. "I feel kinda bad for her."

"Well, quit feeling bad!" Joy urged. "Reserve the feeling bad for other people. Now get back in your Sadness Circle until we're away from Riley."

"But—"

Joy pointed. " _Circle_."

* * *

Tracy stared at Riley, noticing the other girl meeting her gaze. _She doesn't quite look like she's going to lash out and attack..._

Holding her gaze for a moment, Riley placed her head on the table and covered up her face with her arms. She didn't even acknowledge Ann's concerned gaze beside her, only trying to tune out whatever it was Mr. O'Brian was saying.

Unfortunately, her partial curiosity and desire to not fail anything else prevented that from happening.

"Can anyone name for me any specific mental disorders?"

"Schizophrenia!" Tracy called out without even raising her hand.

Riley winced. _Of course._

"Very good, Tracy. Any others?"

"Bipolar disorder."

"Multiple personality disorder."

"Depression."

"All very good examples," said Mr O'Brian, writing the names of the disorders on the board. "Now, I'm more flexible with which one we start out talking about first," he announced. "I think Tracy had a good point in bringing up schizophrenia because it's one of the more complex disorders."

Giving Riley a concerned frown, Ann slowly raised her hand.

"Yes, Ann?"

"Schizophrenia's just hearing voices, right?" she asked.

"That's often the popular depiction if it, yes," Mr. O'Brian said, writing _auditory hallucinations_ on the board. "But that's only part of it. Visual hallucinations are also a major symptom."

Riley slowly lifted her head up, the writing of her pencil slowing. "Visual hallucinations?" She had to fight to get her voice heard above a whisper.

"Exactly, Riley." Mr. O'Brian turned away from her to jot down a few more symptoms on the board as he spoke. "Often visual and auditory hallucinations are so strong that some schizophrenics can't tell that a fantasy world they experience is an illusion."

"Illusion?" Riley's voice grew quieter, her gaze cast downward.

"In other words, for some it's so severe that they're unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. They might experience an entire world that's real only to them."

The emotions all looked at each other.

"Oh no..." Sadness said quietly.

"Don't listen to him, Riley!" Fear called frantically. "You know we're real!"

But Riley slunk into her seat, the pounding of her heart increasing in her ears as she dimly was aware of the other symptoms listen by Mr. O'Brian. Each one heard by the emotions caused their expressions to fall in horror.

"... an expressionless gaze, oversleeping or insomnia, extreme reactions, forgetfulness..."

Riley's mood sunk lower with each word, the console lighting up with blue and purple, a string of mixed memories coming to the shelves like bullets. Every single word was like a knife to Riley's heart and mind. She had tried to feel, but at this point, feeling seemed worse than not feeling.

Beside her, Ann's eyes widened, turning slowly to Riley but trying not to stare. She realized just as well as Riley did that almost all of those were descriptions of Riley's strange behavior lately. Some other students were glancing over too, and Tracy looked torn between wanting to race out of the room or knock Riley unconscious. Ann glared at Tracy upon noticing this, only for her gaze to return to Riley.

 _It fits..._ Riley thought miserably. _It all fits..._

"... social withdrawal, lack of motivation, reduced speech... about a fourth of schizophrenic patients experience depression..."

It felt like every single word the teacher said, depressive symptoms included, described Riley herself. Regaining some feeling back, several blue and purple orbs shot through Headquarters.

 _Maybe I_ am _schizophrenic..._

"Y-You're not, Riley!" Joy called desperately. "You hear us, you've visited the Mind World—"

 _And how do I know it isn't all an illusion too?!_

Joy fell silent. A red memory orb entered amidst the blue and purple spheres.

Riley buried her face in her arms, barely hearing what else Mr. O'Brian said.

"Riley, listen!" Joy insisted, trying to think of any way she could improve this situation. "Okay, yeah, so maybe the symptoms kind of fit—"

"' _Kind of'_?!" Fear cried. "They _all_ almost— _ow_!" A punch in the chest from Anger silenced the purple nerve.

"But that doesn't mean you have it!" Joy finished.

Recovering from the punch to his chest, Fear tried to take deep breaths as he paced around. "Okay... okay... Tracy's taunting her, Possibility Island's core memory's going weird, Riley has symptoms of schizophrenia and—"

He stopped short as he looked over at the memory orbs. Followed by a scream that caused Riley to wince. For once, an expression of concern and fear was alight on her face, though she fought against showing it to not draw attention.

" ** _What's going on with the memories?!_** "

Fear's shout instantly drew the attention of the others, all of them swiftly turning to look at the memories as they saw his trembling hand. The one that had just rolled in was a mix of purple and blue, which given the situation wasn't surprising.

But what had caused Fear to scream immediately set the emotions on edge. For while there were colored memories like the newest one, many of the more recent ones present on the shelves were either much duller in color or completely gray. As unfeeling as Riley's old memories about phone numbers. And the sky wasn't looking quiete as bright as before either.

The alarm in Fear's voice brought Riley a bit out of her emotional stupor, feeling a stronger fear than she had managed all day. The dulled look in her eyes faded somewhat, replaced by alarm. _What's going on?!_

It took a moment for Joy to respond, trying to think quickly as she held up her hands. "Uh, just a second, Riley, we'll fix it!"

Fear felt as if his insides were turning to ice, staring with unease at the increasing number of dulled or gray memories. "S-S-Sadness!" he cried, gripping the smaller emotion by the shoulder and staring frantically into her eyes, looking back and forth from her to the wall of memories. "I thought you said that Gloom couldn't come back from console lockout! I don't know about you, but _that's looking an awful lot like depression again to me!_ "

"Gloom shouldn't happen just because of the console lockout," Sadness said quietly, the light gray of some of the orbs giving more depth to her blue eyes as she approached them. "In order for Gloom to happen, circumstances would need to happen that would... bring it... up..."

She slowly turned to face the large screen, Riley's vision seeming blurred with tears. Riley's chest felt tight, the young girl having trouble swallowing, her hand shaking a little as her pencil jotted down the notes that Mr. O'Brian wrote on the board. The console lit up with blue as a colored memory clinked into Headquarters. As Riley tried to blink away her tears, that memory was followed by memories colored a dull red, purple, or blue, with gray mixed in among the colors.

Disgust gasped a little, turning sharply to Sadness. "So if today was going okay," she began, looking at the smoky white of the console, "Riley wouldn't feel as strongly but things would be kind of okay."

Sadness nodded.

"But because of what's going on out there, she's starting to..."

"Yeah." Sadness looked at the console. "Everything that's happening out there is making everything in here worse..."

The emotions felt their hearts break in the tense silence that followed. Only make worse by the fact that the console turned purple, Riley's mental voice suddenly a scream to them.

 _Can't you fix it in there?!_ The unease was so strong that Riley didn't realize she started saying her worry aloud until halfway through her sentence.

"'Can't you fix' what, Riley?" Mr. O'Brian called, looking over at her.

Riley could feel the stares of the others on her as she tried to avoid eye contact. She tried to focus on what the teacher had just been talking about. "C-Can't you, uh... fix schizophrenia with, uh, counseling or something?"

"That's a good question, Riley," Mr O'Brian said as he picked up his chalk. "Mental disorders like schizophrenia aren't something that can be immediately fixed just by going to one counseling session. Sometimes medication needs to be prescribed, sometimes there might have to be weekly counseling sessions—"

"What about the severe cases?" Tracy called out. "Like the ones who hurt people?" Her eyes narrowed at Riley on the last words.

"Well," Mr. O'Brian said, "if it ends up being really severe some might have be hospitalized to treat them. But most cases don't go that far."

Though the emotions had briefly frozen at Riley's slip up, Joy was quick to get moving. Maybe getting some feeling into the dulled memories would help prevent this from getting worse. "Just, uh, hold on Riley! There's some memory issues but we're trying to fix it!" Joy raced over to a gray memory, tossing it over to Sadness who caught it like a football. "Here, rub it, see if that helps!"

Caught off guard and nearly dropping the memory, Sadness tried to focus her emotional energy into the sphere. No luck. The gray remained. "Nothing's happening, Joy!"

"Here, let _me_ try!" Anger exclaimed, shifting through the gray memories and picking one that he thought Riley might feel angry about, a gray memory amidst the mix of emotions when Riley had blown up at her friends. "This one's gotta work!" He pressed his fists so firmly on the memory he thought it might break, but all that happened was his own head becoming alight as he tossed the memory in frustration.

Fear's hands were shaking so hard he thought his particles would fly from his body and vanish as he grabbed gray memory after gray memory, nearly dropping them in his haste to change even one of them. "What do we do, what do we do, _what do we do?!_ "

Joy's head lifted, an idea coming to her as if a bulb had been put into her head. "Quick, Sadness, come bring a memory over to the Mind's Eye projector!" Joy shouted, holding her own graying memory and racing toward the the projector. "Disgust, Fear, Anger, take your memories and head toward the console!"

"Why?" Disgust exclaimed, looking at their ringleader with a baffled expression.

Joy was racing around, speeding through the gray memories and tossing a few to each of the other emotions. "Riley's feeling every emotion on and off except happiness right now, and memory orbs can be multiple colors. If one of you guys can hit a button on the console at the same time as Riley's feeling that, maybe it will, I dunno, link up with her feeling sad and revitalizing the memory."

She looked over at Sadness, who was stretching to hold up the memory in the projector of the Mind's Eye, causing the memory to play for Riley. It was just after she had started walking away from Ann and Jordan after the brief fight.

"Got it?"

"Yeah," Sadness called, hold the memory as if for dear life.

"Okay, good, stay there, Sadness! Don't let go of that memory, and things will be, um, fine! I think..." The last two words were said so quickly that Joy hoped no one else caught them, not wanting to admit that herself.

"How will that help?!" Fear cried, the sphere Joy tossed to him nearly missing his reach, sending him toppling to the ground and just barely catching it in his palm. "All that will do is create a new memory, right? And we can't work the console!"

"The more she doesn't feel emotion in these memories, the harder it might be for her to continue feeling the rest of the day!" Joy cried. "If we can get her to remember them in a way that she feels something, then we might be able to get console control back and try to help Riley get through the rest of the day!"

"Is that even _possible_?!" Anger shouted back, slamming his gray memory against the console as he tried to focus his energy on both, getting nothing and becoming more frustrated as Riley lay her head down on her desk.

"I don't have any other ideas, so worth a shot!"

Noticing Ann and a few of the other students looking at her, Riley forced herself to try to focus and write down what her teacher was saying. But every bit of it was a struggle—if she paid attention, she'd see the others staring and feel self-conscious. But if she shut her eyes, she might get in trouble, and would seem more suspicious to her classmates.

Either way, she lost.

Riley shut her eyes for a moment to try to calm down, the words of Mr. O'Brian partially drowned out by the frantic voices in her head, trying to help bring her feeling back. The fear that had overtaken her about her current situation began to subside. It wasn't like she could do anything to stop it, anyway. She was helpless at this point.

"I don't think we can change these!" Disgust exclaimed, trying to focus all her energy into a memory from the shelves, primarily gray but with a rim of white as all of the day's were. "These memories are Riley's thanks to the console!". The green emotion fought to just not toss her orb on the ground in defeat, looking helplessly over at Joy. "I think _Riley's_ the only one who can change these!"

"I got a better idea!" Fear cried. He pressed the single button on the console that Riley's lockout allowed them to push: the memory recall button.

"Good idea, memory recall!" Joy exclaimed. "That might help Riley!"

The group tensely waited, watching what memory would come up. Sadness pulled the gray memory away so that the new one, a blue-colored memory, projected from the Mind's Eye and enveloped the viewscreen in a blue light. It was the memory of skating with her parents in Minnesota, that had turned blue on her first school day in San Francisco

"That one?" Anger exclaimed. "How's that supposed to help? After this morning a memory about Minnesota and her parents is the last thing Riley needs!"

"Well it's the best we've got right now! Sadness!" Joy called, gesturing for her to come over. "Hurry to the console, now!"

Sadness raced there as if she were running a marathon, noticing the console's color begin to change from smoke-white to blue as Riley recalled the memory.

"W-W-What do I press?"

" _ANYTHING!_ " Fear shouted, trying to press the console himself in desperation.

The console turned blue as Riley felt more melancholy, Sadness pressed a button...

And for a moment, there was a click as the beginnings of tears started to come to Riley's eyes, recalling the memory of back when times were happier for her. And weren't this.

"Yes!" Joy said in relief as a blue memory orb rolled onto the shelves. "We did it!"

But her happiness was short-lived as the blue on the console faded to red.

And suddenly Anger went over toward the recalled memory, as if driven by impulse.

"Wait, Anger!" Disgust called. "What are you doing?"

Anger stepped closer to the memory hanging from the projector, looking back at the others. "Riley's right to feel angry about this. "

 _They acted like they'd accept me no matter what, and now look what's happening!_

Joy was stunned to hear the bitterness in Riley's voice. She realized that the impulse from the memories for the emotions to touch them was at work here. And in this case, it wasn't good. This wasn't like when Riley realized broccoli could be disgusting without being scary...

Beyond the memory, the view of Riley's sight was black as she shut her eyes, any thoughts of writing the teacher's notes abandoned.

Purple joined the red light on the console as Fear moved from his place to follow Anger.

"What the—" Disgust looked in bewilderment. "Why are you moving?"

"I gotta—"

But the answer came as words through Riley's thoughts.

 _What if Mom and Dad learn about what's going on now? We'll never go skating again, they'll send me to a mental hospital, I'll never see them again! They'll all think I'm crazy! What am I going to do?!_

Fear raced ahead of Anger, the red emotion than shoving him out of the way.

The console flashed a mixture of red, blue, and purple, the first and last of those taking over as Fear and Anger warred, both emotionally and literally, in Riley's head as they each had a grasp on the projected memory.

As Joy looked on, from the fight between the emotions, to the memory changing a blend of colors, to the spectrum of memories that lined the shelves, Joy felt something she hadn't felt in a long time.

Fear. _Real_ fear. Fear for Riley and fear for her mind.

Riley covered up her face with her arms, her eyes firmly remaining shut as she wasn't sure what to do. Among the frantic squabbling voices of the emotions, she thought she could hear others. But it was more of the confusing blend of all the emotions squabbling toward each other at once, and trying to focus on what the teacher was saying. Made all the more harder by the fact that her own thoughts were crowding in her head.

 _Why should I try to talk to them?_

 _I'm going to get in so much trouble after today!_

 _How can I explain this to them?!_

 _Maybe if I just stay at hockey all afternoon and hide out an Ann's house._

 _I can't hide from them forever!_

 _They skate with me like they love me and now they think I'm crazy!_

 _They're being so pushy about it!_

 _But what if something really is wrong with me?_

 _What if they're right and I **am** crazy?!_

 _It's not like they can do anything to help!_

Riley had all but tuned out any noise from outside. All that she heard was inside, whether it be her own thoughts or the emotions.

"She's gonna get in trouble with Mom and Dad!"

"They need to not be so pushy!"

"They're concerned, I don't blame them!"

The tugging on the memory between the two emotions soon caused it to fly out of the pull of the projector, the sphere rolling on the ground, now an even blend of purple and red, as Anger and Fear were now sprawled out on the floor.

But the memory having changed wasn't the only thing that caused them to stop fighting. It was the crack they heard outside Headquarters.

Tensing up, Joy was the first to race over as she noticed the core memory that had faded slightly in brightness right before she saw the damage to the island.

"Family Island!" Joy gasped. "No!"

"Nice going guys," Disgust said, crossing her arms at Anger and Fear. "Now look what your squabbling did!" she cried, gesturing toward the dimmed memory and the damaged Island.

"Well don't blame us!" Anger snapped, brushing out the wrinkles in his suit and shoving Fear away. "Blame _Riley_ for this mess!"

A sharp intake of breath from Riley caused all of the emotions to turn the moment those words left Anger's mouth. The smoky gray look returned to the construct as Riley's eyes were now opened. As they went back toward the console, they could feel Riley's chest struggling to get breath to her lungs. The influx of memories had stopped, as if Headquarters had suddenly become frozen in time.

"Uh oh," Sadness said.

"Uh, wait, Riley!" Anger raced toward the console, panic in his eyes for one of the few times in his life. "I didn't mean it li—"

But the console now shone a deep red, purple, and green, red briefly overtaking it as Riley suddenly let out a cry of frustration, anger, and fear. Before anyone could say anything or question what was going on, she gathered her things and raced out of the classroom as fast as she could.

As she left the room, the console became smoke-shaded again. The absence of any sort of memory following at Headquarters seemed just as silent as if Riley were asleep.

But the emotions' eyes widened when a new sphere rolled in. Because of the placement and chime that followed it.

While it was largely white much like the memory powering Possibility Island, if one looked close in the center it was a swirling combination of red, green, blue, and purple, with not a speck of Joy's yellow anywhere to be seen. In fact, the center colors seemed to be mixed with gray as well, quickly looking like a slightly dimmer version of Possibility's sphere.

"It's... a core memory?" Anger gasped.

"No..." It was Joy who had spoken, her hands close to her heart as she stared in horror at the rolling memory. The normally cheerful emotion was looking far worse than when the sad core memory a year ago had first rolled into Headquarters.

"Someone _stop it!_ " Fear cried, racing over as the memory began to ascend the small upward slope before it would reach the holder. But the sliding panel opened up to let the core memory through to the path under the floor that would lead to the core memory holder.

Joy practically raced the memory as she desperately tried to reach for it before it could sink under the floor. She stretched her arm as far as it could go, anything to stop this new core of Riley's personality, but too late. The memory kept rolling underneath the floor of Headquarters.

"The core memory holder's still up!" Disgust pointed out as the other emotions raced toward it. "If we keep the holder up the core memory can't reach it and create another Island!"

"So what are we supposed to do?!" Anger demanded. " _Not_ let it create an Island?"

"We have to!" Joy shouted, pulling at the core memory as it reached the bottom of the holder.

"But it's a core memory!" Sadness protested.

"Does that look like it would help Riley in any way?!" Joy demanded frantically.

 _Maybe it will._

The emotions ceased their squabbling for a moment to look up, but not daring to let the new memory move from its spot. They had been so caught up in the chaos that they had almost forgotten Riley could hear them.

"Riley?" Joy asked.

Riley said nothing. The emotions could see that her vision was blurred from tears as she stormed through the school hallways. She didn't seem to have a particular destination in mind, just anywhere that wasn't the psych room.

Joy shook her head, letting out a sigh. "Sorry, Riley!" she exclaimed. "But we can't let you hurt yourself like this! This core memory's got. to...go!" She trailed off, having tried to pull the new core memory out but each yank yielding no result. Blue eyes narrowing in desperation, she tugged at the memory, trying in vain to get it out. "It's stuck!"

"Hold on, I got it!" Fear called, bending down next to her. "I've got long fingers!"

"So do I!" Joy pointed out, her taking hold of the top while Fear stretched his fingers underneath the sphere to try to loosen it. "Okay, on three! One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

The two emotions tugged with all their strength, sending the core memory up and out of the holder. Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived, as having pulled with more force than necessary, the memory was sent flying from their grasps.

"GET IT!" Fear cried.

The other four didn't need to be told twice, each of them frantically trying to get the core memory before it did any damage. Unfortunately, with all of them squabbling around the core memory holder, things got out of hand quickly.

As Fear tried to stretch his lanky arms to reach for the memory, his fingers grasped air, causing him to land on Anger instead. Fighting against burning the latter emotion to a crisp, Anger cried to push the nerve away from his face so he could reach for the memory, only for Joy and Disgust to both leap for it...

The next thing Joy was aware of was her side knocking two memory orbs down, a sound echoing through Headquarters as two of the light lines—one to Family Island and the other to Possibility Island—went dark. A few further zaps indicated the others had followed suit.

Fear looked like he was about to have a heart attack, barely able to even get a scream out.

The quintet frantically tried to pick up the fallen core memories, intent on not letting any of them get away.

Joy quickly started putting the memories back in the holder, muttering at each one. "Okay, here's Friendship, here's Possibility—"

"Um, Joy?" Sadness called. " _I've_ got Possibility."

Joy stopped talking. Amidst the squabble to put the core memories back into place, another indent had opened right next to where Possibility Island's core memory had once been. And the memory that she had just put in the new holder wasn't Possibility Island's...

The other emotions turned, seeing the glowing white memory in Sadness's hands, her blue eyes looking at Joy with shock behind her glasses.

The glow around Joy's body dimmed as she stared at Sadness in horror. "... You have Possibility Island's memory."

Before Sadness could get a word out, she stopped, as did the other emotions, as a new light line spread out from underneath the holder and toward the Personality Islands hanging over the chasm of the Memory Dump.

Joy frantically tried to tug the memory out of its slot, knock it away, anything, but it was no use. Riley was getting a new island, a new aspect of her personality, whether they liked it or not.

"Oh son of a—"

Anger's curse was cut off as Riley entered one of the unused classrooms and slammed the door, shutting herself in before huddling against the wall. She buried her face in her knees.

"I hate my life," Riley mumbled.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeeahh, not a lot of hope as far as psychology was concerned, huh? I had quite a bit of fun writing that core memory scene, even though the circumstances weren't exactly good. ^^; So yeah, next chapter we'll see more of Riley's day, see if it gets any better (or worse), and see what's up with Riley's new Island. See you next chapter and remember to review!**


	22. Fragile Mind

**A/N: Hi everyone. Well, I feel like I ought to address the reviews a bit, and the changes. Simply put, I kind of put this through an overhaul from the original draft, so if you read this the first few days it was up you'll see some changes, namely regarding Joy's decision and motives, and the Puberty thing.**

 **With that said, on we go!  
**

* * *

Riley's words echoed to the emotions, the group glancing over toward the console and the viewscreen. Riley's vision was darkened, the girl's head on her knees and not really focusing on anything.

 _I hate my life._

Even as Joy looked helplessly at the new core memory, part of her wanted to just tell Riley that she shouldn't hate her life and things were going to be okay. But even the most cheerful of the emotions was finding it difficult to be more positive...

The inhabitants of Headquarters could only stare as the lightline sped from Headquarters to create a new Island of Personality. Joy's hands were still firmly on the new core memory, trying to tug it out, but no luck. All they could do was watch and see what happened.

As the light extended toward the left of Family Island, right between it and Possibility Island, the new island formed in a glow of golden light just like any other. But it was clear that something was up with this one the moment its features were made clear.

Unlike the other islands, which were colorful and bright and full of fun when active, this island was automatically different, more fitting in with the now-darker sky. While it had a towering statue like the two islands that flanked it, the golden statue that overlooked the island was of Riley alone. It appeared that some sort of spiraling gray wave was behind the statue, towering over it and threatening to knock it down as similarly dark tendrils surrounded the statue of Riley like ocean waves in a storm. But the Riley statue wasn't in a position of cowering fear or anything, just... despondent. Literally alone on her own little island. Despite being surrounded by Family and Possibility, the Island seemed to have a barrier of loneliness about it.

The emotions stared at it.

"... What kind of island is _that_ supposed to be?!" Anger asked, stepping toward the window and glaring down at the new Island of Personality that seemed to literally be driving a wedge between Possibility and Family. "Gloom Island?"

"I don't think so," Sadness said quietly. "Gloom is the force of Depression that comes from the Unconscious, it—"

Riley glanced up a little as she thought to them, her brow arched in curiosity in spite of her misery. Now that was a place she couldn't recall having heard of before. _What's the Unconscious?_

Sadness glanced toward the console as the other emotions looked at her. "It's... it's kind of like the Subconscious, but a bit more..." Trying to search for the right word, she looked back at Fear.

The purple emotion flinched the moment he realized his friend was looking at him. "What are you looking at me for?"

"You read that one too."

"Hardly! You know that I tried to skip over Appendix-113 the moment I got to it!"

"Some safety guy you are," Disgust quipped.

 _So what is it?_ Riley interjected.

Sadness paused, seeming to search for the right word. "The Unconscious is, well...

"Unnatural?" Fear suggested, then looking like he wanted to take that back. "I mean, natural? Unnaturally natural?"

"Well, kind of," Sadness admitted, turning her focus back to Riley, "but there's only certain circumstances it can be reached..."

"Brilliant!" Anger said. "Let's just toss this new memory in there and it'll never bother us again!"

"It's kind of complicated," Sadness said with a frown in Anger's direction before she turned back toward the intercom. "It's better if I explain when you're here tonight, Riley—"

 _Can we visit the Subconscious?_

A silence fell over the emotions. In the state Riley was in now, that was the last place they would have expected her to go to.

"Tonight?" Sadness finally inquired.

 _Yes._

"R-Riley, are you sure?" Fear stammered. "I mean, that's where your darkest fears are kept," he admitted, a nervous laugh escaping his mouth at the thought, "and in your current mental state that's _probably_ not—"

 _I want to see it, okay?_

Fear was silenced by Riley's tone, almost pleading in contrast to her earlier near-monotone responses. Clearly the young girl's mind, so to speak, was made up.

With a sigh, uncertain even more now about what was to come tonight, Sadness turned her gaze back toward the Island. "Anyway, you still have some emotion with that Island, so Gloom Island doesn't quite fit."

"Well then how about 'The World Stinks Right Now' Island?" Anger suggested.

"That might be a _bit_ of a rough way to put it, don't you think?" Joy asked, frantically trying to come up with some more positive name for this Island. Though being honest with herself, all this Island brought to mind was negativity.

"Or Creepy Gloomy Darkness Island?" Disgust added, her face scrunched up in a show of, well, disgust.

 _Or Isolation Island._

The emotions' attention broke away from the Islands for a moment, looking past the core memory holder and toward the screen of Riley's sight. Riley's head still appeared bowed, her vision half meeting her legs and half the brown titled floor.

 _Yeah, Isolation Island,_ Riley repeated in her head despondently. _Sounds about right._

"But you can't even see what it looks like in here!" Anger called.

 _No,_ Riley conceded bitterly, not moving from her spot huddled against the wall. _But I_ _ **feel**_ _it._

That shut the red brick up.

Joy couldn't help but let worry cross her features as she went toward the core memory holder again. "I'm still not sure about it," she admitted. "I mean, yeah, it's a core memory, but..."

"I dont like it either, but... it might turn out like last time," Disgust pointed out as the other emotions placed the core memories into the slots, the Islands beginning to whir to life again. "Once you actually got the core memories back and allowed Sadness's core to be there, things got better."

Joy sighed. "I guess you're right." She tried to force a smile on her face, despite her unease at the new Island's presence. "I should probably give it a chance..."

As Joy spoke, Sadness firmly placed Possibility Island's core memory into the holder, causing the Island to light up once more. With that, all the core memories were in place.

The other emotions sighed in relief.

Joy let a sigh escape her mouth, looking from the dark core memory to the Island it had created. "O-Okay, maybe you're right," she admitted. "Maybe if we just leave it things will be okay..."

But her conviction on that front didn't last for long.

Something began to happen to the core memories as they sat in the holder with Isolation Island. Their brightness, visibly distinct from any other memory, seemed a bit darker. As if they were beginning to become memories that had a presence in the Mind World for Riley, but not explicitly core.

"AGH!" Fear exclaimed, leaping back from the holder as if it was going to explode and nearly knocking a memory off in the process. "What's going on with the memories?!"

"I-It's corrupting them..." Joy said in a horrified whisper. Her eyes widened, her expression shocked as she focused on the gray of Gloom present in the new memory. "Gloom's corrupting the other memories!" Joy's gaze frantically wondered over each memory, becoming dimmer. All except for Isolation Island.

Joy's eyes narrowed. If it wasn't doing anything, she might be able to begrudgingly accept the new Island, as long as a careful eye was kept on it to make sure it didn't affect Riley. But this... this was something altogether different. And damaging. "That settles it. We _have_ to get rid of it."

"Um, Joy?" Sadness said doubtfully, "I'm not sure if that's the best idea."

Fear had just been about to race over to the recall button and slam his foot down on it, but paused at Sadness's wording, only succeeding in getting his feet tangled and falling on his face, just barely missing falling on the button.

"Why not?" Joy insisted, looking at Isolation Island's core memory with an expression that was very much like what would be expected of Disgust. She tried to tug on it once more, knowing that trying to free the other core memories from its influence would only cause the Islands to shut down. Nothing worked.

Sadness fiddled with her hands a bit. "I mean, I know we don't like it, but... it's a core memory." She glanced out the window and stared at the newest addition to Riley's mind. "It created a new Island already and removing it could hurt Riley."

Joy frowned at that.

Doubt crossed Fear's face as well at that, looking more anxious even though he clearly didn't like the new Island's presence. "Maybe Sadness is right," Fear said nervously. "I mean, remember what happened last time?"

"This is different!" Anger insisted, causing Fear to tense up from the glare he sent his way. "Riley needed those other Islands! We toss that thing into the Memory Dump, Isolation Island falls soon, problem solved! Ta-dah!"

Joy gave the core memories a look of frustration and desperation. "It seems kind of stuck."

"Well why would be like that?" Disgust asked. She carefully studied the size of the other cores. "It looks like it's the same size." She nudged Joy over a little and tried to casually knock it out of the holder. No luck.

"Maybe smashing it will work.". Anger ponder his fists together like he was planning on doing just that in a matter of seconds.

"No!" Fear protested. "You could destroy some of the other cores too!"

"And we don't want any weird memory glass pieces on the floor," Disgust added.

"But there's gotta be _some_ way to get it out!" Joy argued. "She doesn't need—"

"She needed _my_ first core memory," Sadness reminded her. "And you didn't understand it at first either. Why is this any different?"

Joy paused, looking helplessly at her blue friend. She then looked over at the core memories, gesturing to them and their less radiant state. "Look at it, Sadness! When Homesickness Island was plugged in after the new Family Island, what happened to Family Island?"

"Nothing," Sadness admitted. "I mean, Homesickness Island faded from core status after a while, but it didn't affect the others..."

"Exactly!" Joy insisted. "And every time a new core has been added, nothing has happened to the others. But look at what Isolation's doing!" She pointed to the holder, and the other core memories that were becoming dimmer. "They're losing their core status, their importance... No other core memory has done that," Joy argued, desperation filling her eyes. "And none of them have had Gloom in them before. Gloom is corrupting the other memories!" Joy leaned down and put her hands firmly on Sadness's shoulders. "Losing the importance of the core memories can't be good for Riley! If we leave it alone she could..." Joy swallowed, "she could..."

"She could what?" Sadness asked.

Joy's expression faltered, practically crumpling, before she shook her head and tried to appear determined. "If... if Isolation Island wasn't doing that to the memories, I'd let it stay," the yellow emotion argued. "But that can't be good for Riley. If we don't stop it, it will be like losing the cores all over again."

"It seems pretty lodged in there even though it's the same size though," Disgust pointed out.

Tearing her gaze from Joy's desperate eyes, Sadness looked carefully at the memory itself, noticing that Disgust was indeed right. It wasn't any bigger than other core memories, in fact being the same size, but there had to be some reason this one wouldn't budge,

Finally it dawned on her. Lifting her head, Sadness turned to the others and raised her voice a little to be heard. "I think that part of Riley _wants_ it to be stuck."

The other emotions stopped their squabbling and looked at her. Their expressions settled into a blend of concern and confusion at Sadness's distressingly plausible theory.

"But why would Riley want Isolation Island?" Disgust asked, looking repulsed at the sight of the core memory. "It's so creepy and, well, isolated."

"Not to mention it's causing the others to fade!" Anger snapped.

"She doesn't feel as close to everyone anymore," Sadness clarified. "I think..."

"Sadness," Joy pleaded. "It's _hurting_ her."

The quintet looked back at the fading core memories. They, most notably Friendship and Honesty, were looking even dimmer now, a little more gray. As if Gloom was tainting them too. Isolation was the lone exception that stayed perfectly at its given brightness. The workings of the other Islands began to become less bright as well.

Joy's expression paled. "See?!"

"Okay, okay, you're definitely right!" Fear cried, scrambling over to pull on the core memory and having just as much success as Joy did. "GET IT OUT!"

Sadness sighed. Even though she still felt it had some place in Riley's mind, given its status as a core memory and having created an Island now, it seemed that Isolation was definitely doing more harm than good so far. Causing other memories to fade was certainly bad news. "I just don't think Riley can let go of it..."

"Sure she can!" Anger insisted, calling over to their host. "Hey Riley, tell this freaky core memory in your head to get out of the holder and take a hike! Or at least get the Gloom force away!"

Riley said nothing, internally or externally.

"Let me try," Joy said, patting Anger on the shoulder for his effort before cautiously calling to her host. "Riley, please?"

Anger glared up at her. "Really, Joy? You think 'please' is gonna work?"

However, it did get Riley to respond, though not in the way Joy had hoped. The core memory didn't budge, and Riley's internal voice was filled with resignation. _What's the point? Not like it matters._

"Hey, don't think like that, Riley!" Joy urged. She took a deep breath, convinced there had some way to get by the effects of this new core memory even though so many things seemed to be falling apart, literally and figuratively. "Well get this core memor—"

She paused, as did all the emotions, as footsteps were heard Outside. Then a familiar voice, muffled by the door.

"Riley?"

The memory for Friendship Island dimmed a little further, only noticed by Joy who was carefully holding it in its slot. The yellow emotion's expression briefly radiated alarm, but she tried to force away her shock, endeavoring to keep the core memory firmly in the holder.

"It's Ann!" Fear cried. "Don't say anything!"

Riley just sighed, her gaze shifting toward the door. She thought about quickly hurrying over to lock it, but she knew that if Ann didn't already know she was there, the click would alert her. And then she might go get one of the teachers to unlock the door if Riley wouldn't let her in.

And the last thing Riley wanted at the moment was more adults thinking something was wrong with her.

"Maybe Ann being here is what Riley needs," Sadness advised, her gaze lingering on the door.

Riley let out a sigh. As much as she didn't want to admit it, maybe she could at least try. At least acknowledge to Ann that she hadn't run away from the school or anything. But if she locked the door quietly enough, Ann could try it, find it locked, and look elsewhere.

Just as Riley was about to stand up and lock the door, it opened, Ann peeking her head in and looking around for any sign of her missing friend.

"Riley? Are you—"

Ann paused as she turned to her right, noticing Riley nearly behind the door, huddled against the wall with a glum look on her face, seeing none of the usual vibrance in her eyes. "Riley!" Ann placed her backpack down on the floor, hurrying to sit down near her distressed friend. "Mr. O'Brian would of followed but he had to teach the class and I volunteered to go after you," She brushed her pink hair out of her eyes to see Riley better, noticing her flinch at the thought of Mr. O'Brian coming to talk to her. "What's wrong? Why'd you run off like that?"

Not in the mood to talk, Riley only turned away, sighing in response.

Ann's voice grew a little quieter, even though no one else was there aside from them and their emotions. "... Is it because he was talking about schizophrenia?"

At first, Riley didn't acknowledge her friend had spoken, finally responding with nothing more than a weak nod.

Concern was written all over Ann's face, but much more kind than the "concern" Tracy had expressed. "Do you... do you think you have it?"

Riley made no comment, or change in expression. At least for a few seconds.

The emotions in Headquarters waited, tense at what she'd say. Did she trust them? Did she not? Possibility Island wasn't running as strongly as normal, and Isolation Island seemed to be the most prominently running one. At this point, it was impossible for them to really discern what Riley really believed. Fear gripped Joy's hand so tightly the yellow emotion thought her fingers might be crushed.

Riley finally responded in a monotone, resting her head on her knees. "... No... Yes... I don't know..."

A small gasp was heard from Ann's mouth, her expression changing to one of both shock and worry. She knew that the schizophrenia talk was making Riley upset—it seemed that the whole class had seen it—but the thought that Riley did legitimately think she might have a mental illness was something she found worrying. She _had_ started to wonder about it herself, but she didn't want to hurt Riley's feelings...

Ann moved closer, putting an arm around her shoulder. Riley flinched at the touch, but forced herself to look over at Ann anyway. The look in Ann's brown eyes hurt Riley to see. And Ann felt just the same.

Whatever was going on with Riley, it was scaring her.

"So, you really _are_ hearing voices?" Ann asked.

Riley nodded.

"And that _does_ kind of explain why you've been so snappy lately..."

Riley shrugged, her voice quiet. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Ann paused, removing her hand from around Riley and resting it on her lap as she sat with her knees close to her chest. The brunette drummed her fingers on her knees for a minute, unsure of what to say. Riley was troubled, she seemed mentally fragile, and Ann began to worry that if Riley didn't do anything about it, it could lead to things that she didn't even want to consider happening.

Finally Ann swallowed, nervous at how Riley might react to her next sentence, but unsure of any other option. "M-Maybe we can talk to someone and get help—"

" _What?!_ "

Inside Riley's head, the core memory for Friendship Island became a little less bright. Outside, Riley's expression flickered from her mask of apathy to a scowl in her desperate attempt to feel things. And as she turned to look at her friend, Ann could see that tears were threatening to form at her eyes.

It almost hurt Riley to feel now. And what she felt was anger and confusion.

"Uh oh," Sadness said inside her head, sensing what was coming.

"Ah!" Fear cried. "Why'd Ann have to say _that_?!"

" _Because_ she's being nosy and is probably planning to call some mental hospital right now!" Anger snapped.

"Hey, that's not gonna happen!" Joy quickly said, glancing back and forth from the other emotions to the console.

A flash of red joined the console, as Riley looked at Ann with an expression that changed to a mix of despair and hostility. "You think I'm crazy too, don't you?!"

Ann drew back a bit, her expression stunned at Riley's hostile demeanor. "Riley, no! I don't think you're crazy!"

The console was nearly overtaken by purple in Riley's mind, the interior of Headquarters darker in a way that was reminding the emotions of what happened last year. Outside, Riley leapt up and stared at Ann. "Then why did you say I needed help?!"

Ann stood up as fast as she could, briefly disorienting herself in the process as she stopped herself from approaching Riley, nervous that any attempted gesture of comfort would only drive her away. "I didn't mean like 'mental hospital' help!"

"Then what did you mean?!"

"Riley!" Joy called, wishing she could just touch the console and help her girl feel better. "I'm sure she didn't mean—"

Ann's voice broke Riley's attention from just focusing on Joy. "Just counseling or something! It'll be o—"

"NO, Ann!" Riley shouted, tears forming at her eyes as she stepped back, the emotions in her head falling silent. "I don't need any 'help' okay?! I don't need people thinking I'm a freak!"

"Riley, you're not a—"

But anything else Ann had to say went unheard as Riley raced out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

The five inhabitants of Headquarters cringed at the door slam. A stunned silence filled Headquarters.

Joy looked back and forth from the screen of Riley's sight to the fading core memories, Sadness looking at her just as helplessly. It was times like this she really wished she could be in more than one place at the same time.

Narrowing her eyes, Joy firmly tugged at the memory, wiggling it a bit, the outside workings of the Island appearing as hard at work to her as an oncoming train. As the memory shifted slightly in her hands, her eyes lit up in a ray of hope. The other core memories may be fading, but there was a chance she could send this one away. If she sent it away, maybe things would be alright again.

"I'm getting it!" she called, turning to her blue friend. "Sadness, go over there and hit the recall button! We're getting this core memory out of here!"

Sadness raced over toward the recall button and lifted her foot, but stopped, realizing there was something Joy was forgetting. "Joy, I don't think—"

"Just _please_ do it, Sadness!" Joy cried, wiggling the core for Isolation Island out of its slot and looking desperately at the fading cores. "We _need_ to get rid of it!"

"But—"

"DO IT!" Joy cried, finally dislodging the memory.

Sadness hesitated, but Fear quickly raced over and slammed his foot on the button.

"There, taken care of!" he said. "Now the core memory and those others will be—" it was then that he turned to the shelves, realizing that they were being sent down as well, apathetic and emotional memories alike. " _SentdowntoLongTermMemory!_ "

"Oh no!" Joy's eyes widened in alarm, tossing Isolation Island's memory to the ground for the recall tube to pick it up and hurriedly racing over to the shelves of memories as they started to be sent down to Long Term. In her frantic demeanor, she knocked into the core memory holder in the process and didn't notice she had sent Friendship, Family, Honesty, and Possibility to the floor. "We can't let those gray ones go down!" She practically tripped over her own feet in shock, looking back and forth between the core memories that the others tried to pick up and the memories that were now on their way down to Long Term. But the memories were going too fast for Joy to get on her own, and many gray ones were heading down faster than she could keep up. "Help me out here guys!" she called. "We need to get some of the worse memories off!"

Fear didn't need to be told twice, racing over. Anger and Disgust followed suit from the console, and Sadness from the recall tube button.

Joy was reaching as much as she could to knock the gray memories in particular away and off the shelves. "M-Maybe if we don't let some of these be sent down, Riley can, you know, patch things up!" She pulled a gray memory off the shelves, accidentally knocking off one of the ones from lunch in her haste. One of the few that day that had some happiness in it. Gasping, she put that one back on the shelf. If there was any time Riley needed additional happiness in her Long Term, it was now. More happy, less Gloomy. "If we let the gray core memories go to Long Term, there might be more of a chance Riley will get more depressed! She'll focus more on that and less on feeling!"

The other emotions tried to help as much as they could. But as Sadness pulled a gray memory from the shelf, she turned back and noticed something. "Joy, look!"

Sadness's voice barely registered to Joy in her haste, but when she noticed, her mouth gaped in horror. Isolation Island's memory was on its way toward the recall tube, but so were Friendship, Family, Honesty, and Possibility.

"NO!"

The other emotions tried to race over, but Joy was quickest. Isolation was already going up the chute by the time she reached it, and Friendship and Family followed suit. Her mind in a whirl of alarm, Joy tried to reach for the fleeing memories, but all of them barreled up the chute before she could reach them. And the force was starting to suck her in too.

" _JOY!_ "

The other emotion's raced forward, Fear grabbing Joy's hand to pull her back in a chain."Don't worry Joy, we've got you!"

As the others pulled back against the suction, Joy looked up the chute where the core memories had gone. She could feel that the combined pull of the others was clearly strong enough to get her out of it, but she looked back at the others. Then at the console. The console where any sort of happiness appeared locked out no matter what she did. And any words of confidence and hope she tried to offer to Riley fell on deaf ears. With some of her most vital core memories gone too...

She quickly looked at the others, her eyes shining with a mixture of determination and worry. "Guys, let go."

"What?!" Anger shouted. "Joy, are you crazy?! You'll get sucked up too!"

"That's the point! If I don't go, the core memories might get lost in Long Term forever!" Joy argued. "The mind workers wouldn't know exactly which ones to call up! And Isolation Island's core _needs_ to go in the Memory Dump! If it's put in Long Term, it could start to affect _all_ of Riley's memories!"

"But Riley needs you _here_!" Fear cried.

Joy looked at him regretfully. "I know, and if things were different I'd stay, but... Riley's locked me out no matter what I do, and with the core memories lost it might just get worse. The least I can do is help her get her back what she lost." She looked pleadingly at the others. "I'm supposed to look after her. I need to do this."

The other emotions, for the moment, were silent.

"I'll be back when I can, I promise!" Joy insisted. "You guys and Riley can come get me tonight on the off chance I'm... not back," she said hesitantly. "But, I, I will be, I will! Just... try to take care of Riley the best you can until I get back, okay?"

It was clear that the words were hard for Joy to say. But it was either stay here and watch helplessly as Riley's mind fell apart, or take initiative and get back those core memories... and get rid of Isolation Island's.

"We will, Joy," Sadness said after a moment. "We promise."

Fear's hands shaking, he looked at Joy regretfully before letting go, the others falling over backwards to the floor now that their hold on Joy had been freed.

The section of the tube had started to decrease, but it was still enough to pull Joy up, the yellow emotion staring ahead with a look of determination.

"Don't worry Riley, I'll do whatever I can to fix this!" Joy was heard, her voice fading before vanishing up into the maze of tubes that would lead to Long Term Memory.

The tube ascended back into the ceiling, the darkened Headquarters left with six core memories, four emotions, and a plethora of gray memories scattered on the floor.

The four emotions looked up toward the ceiling. Then over to the console.

"What do we do now?" Disgust said.

"The only thing we've been able to do all day," Sadness said worriedly. "Try to keep Riley's head on straight."

* * *

Inside the recall tubes, Joy tried to stay vigilant, speeding through the pathways that would lead to Long Term Memory just like last time.

No, not just like last time. This time she knew more about the Mind World, a lot more about what to do.

 _Find the core memories, throw Isolation's into the Memory Dump, go up with the others through a recall tube, get back to Headquarters. That will solve everything! Well, not solve everything, but at least make things better. I have to help make Riley better again._

She knew that she'd have to find them as soon as possible. With four of her good ones gone, Riley's mind had suffered enough. To lose one core memory like that to the abyss of Long Term could spell disaster. Losing _four_ of the good one, especially with the current circumstances...

Left. Right. Left fork. Up. Down. Right fork. Up again. Joy felt like she was riding a roller coaster, and all this flying was making her dizzy.

Going down again, she saw several memories come from a pathway above, now in front of her. Some were the ordinary spheres from the shelves, but others—

"The core memories, yes!"

But just as she tried to reach for them, they went speeding off in another direction.

"NO!" Joy cried, trying to change diection and reach for them. But the matrix of the recall tubes had other plans as Isolation, Friendship, Honesty, and Family sped out of reach. She frantically tried to grasp Possibility, but with the directions in which the orbs were flying, her fingers barely got a hold of the sphere's glass-like edge before it too was pulled away from her.

Joy sighed, trying desperately to take the correct path that would lead her to the memories amidst the roller-coaster-like maze. The memory matrix paths were long and winding, and she had to have hope she could find the right memories again.

Somehow, some way, she'd get them back.

She just had to hope she didn't end up too far...

* * *

Back at Headquarters, things weren't exactly going well.

"Okay, yeah, Joy's getting the core memories, but until she gets back, now what?!" Fear cried, running around Headquarters in a panic. "We've lost half the core memories, Isolation Island's still there, we're all probably gonna die!"

"We're not gonna _die_ , nitwit!" Anger exclaimed. "At least Joy's going to get all the core memories back, and it's not like she could really do anything here now, anyway!" he exclaimed, pointing to the console. A scowl crossed his face.

"Great," Disgust muttered. "We've been without Joy for less than a minute and already we don't know what to do."

"I just hope she gets back with the core memories soon..."

Riley, simply walking in the hallways and intending to skip the rest of Psych, made no comment.

* * *

Not much went on in computer class, Riley staying pretty much silent both Outside and Inside. She wasn't in the mood for talking, and the emotions were still trying to figure out what to do.

On the way to Life Sciences, however, it was another story.

Anger, at a loss, finally started rummaging through the idea bulbs, the others glancing on as he rummaged through the alcove. "There's gotta be some idea that could help..."

He paused, lifting up a small bulb and looking at it. "You know what, forget it. _This_ is the kind of idea that we should have done in the first place. If Joy hadn't been so insistent we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"What's the idea?" Fear asked cautiously.

Anger turned to the others and help the idea bulb up. "Calling the Mind Workers to fix the intercom!"

Riley lifted her head a little.

Inside her head, the other emotions looked at Anger.

"So then..." Sadness began, "Riley will never be able to hear us again?"

"Hey, there's always the dreaming," Anger snapped. "And look around, blue! I wouldn't exactly call this situation the best thing that ever happened to us!"

"Maybe there's a way it could be fixed so she can hear us just some of the time," Disgust advised. "Then she wouldn't totally lose us and she could get her mind back on track. So to speak."

Fear took a deep breath. "What do _you_ think, Riley?"

With Riley being able to hear them, she didn't need the idea bulb in the console to consider the idea. She thought for a minute, weighing her options.

As she reached the room and got to her desk, she finally responded.

"Let's try it."

"We can try to get in touch with them and ask if they've seen Joy!" Fear said. "Maybe they can help bring her back if she has all the core memories."

"Or help her find them," Anger said. "Riding on a train over Long Term would be a lot faster than walking through it.

"It's worth a shot," agreed Disgust. "Not sure what else we can do."

It was then that Riley looked to the front of the room, breaking out of her own thoughts, and was met with confusion and slight alarm.

Her Life Sciences teacher, a balding man named Mr. Adams was joined by his wife, a woman with brown curly hair and brown eyes, wearing a light blue dress. She also happened to be the school counselor.

Riley tensed up.

"What's she doing here?! Fear cried in her head. "What she she heard about what happened and she wants to take Riley for counseling?!"

"I don't think she'd be standing up in front of the class for that," Disgust pointed out with a roll of her eyes.

As the students filed in, Riley noticed Ann, Jordan, and Tracy trying to catch her eye, but she ignored them. However, she noticed Jordan look up front and groan, a blush crossing his face.

"What's wrong?" Ann asked.

Jordan looked at her with a wince, his concern for Riley briefly overtaken by embarrassment. "I know why Mom and Dad are both here."

"Why?"

"You'll find out." Trying to think of some other thing to talk about, he then glanced over at Riley as they walked by, whispering as they took a few seats back. "Hey, did you talk with Riley at all?"

"She raced out after psychology and I tried to talk to her, but she got all snippy at me and ran off again."

"Ouch. Maybe—"

"I'll tell you later," Ann whispered, looking at her friend. "Riley's had a rough day."

"What I think we'll be talking about today isn't gonna make it any better," Jordan said. "Think she'll feel like coming over to practice?"

"I don't know."

Once everyone was seated, Mr. Adams cleared his throat, straightening his striped blue tie that matched his shirt. "Good afternoon everyone. How are you all doing today?"

Riley shrugged amidst the chorus of "Fine"s and "Good"s.

"Now," Mr. Adams said, "you're probably wondering why both of us are here."

"To counsel some people?" Tracy asked, glancing in Riley's direction.

Jordan's mother laughed a little. "Just because I'm the school counselor doesn't mean I'm always just here to talk about that," she said with a light laugh. "The reason both of us are here is because we're going to talk about a subject that can be a bit... uncomfortable," he admitted. "Today's the day we're going to talk about a little thing called puberty."

Jordan cringed. "I knew it!" he whispered to Ann.

"Boys, stay here in the room with me," Mr. Adams said. "Girls, go with Mrs. Adams."

As the girls started to get up and follow the counselor, Riley glanced behind her. Ann was a few people behind her, looking a bit wary. Jordan, still in his seat, looked over at them. "I warned you!" he mouthed.

"Okay," Disgust said, glancing at the alarm on the console. "At least now we'll figure out what this puberty thing is supposed to be..."

"What if it's a disease?!" Fear exclaimed. "A disease that causes girls to get terrible rashes or something?"

Disgust frowned. "You know, as gross as that sounds, I bet Jordan has it worse."

"Maybe it's something that could help whats going on with Headquarters once it activates," Sadness said, trying to think how Joy would as the girls sat down in the next room, waiting anxiously as Mrs. Adams closed the door behind her.

"Well," Mrs. Adams said. "Let's get started. Now, with puberty, your body starts to go through certain changes..."

Any hopeful expressions that may have been present on the emotions' faces fell lower and lower the more the teacher started talking.

"Okay..." Sadness trailed off, letting each topic slowly sink in as they listened to the teacher's words. "Maybe puberty won't be a good thing after all."

"Gee, _ya think?!_ "

Riley slammed her head on the table with a thunk.

* * *

At last, the school day came to an end.

Riley sighed, her arms limp at her sides as she just stared at the sidewalk. She wasn't quite ready to head home and be driven to hockey just yet. There was literally too much going on in her mind at the moment to feel comfortable with that.

She then felt a drop of water on her head, then another. Riley's frown deepened. _Rain. Great._

As Riley sat down at a bench near the school, it was then that Disgust heard the sound of a train horn, racing over to the window that overlooked the Islands. "Oh, thank goodness, there's the Train! Maybe we can fingally get things—"

But she paused, her facial expression falling as the others came up to see.

While the Train was indeed heading toward Headquarters, it certainly wasn't the smooth ride it normally was. In fact, it seemed more akin to when Riley first tried to stear the Train of Thought with just her thoughts, almost nearly falling off the tracks. In fact, the tracks that formed in front of the train seemed much more bumpy than normal.

"That can't be good," Anger said.

Despite the rocky ride, the Train of Thought did manage to pull up alongside Headquarters, despite Fear's worry that everyone riding it would go kareening into the Memory Dump. Two mind workers entered Headquarters, the blue-green one known as Fritz joined by the purple mind worker, introducing herself as Janice, who had helped expand the console a few months prior. No Joy.

"Sorry it took us a bit to get here," Fritz said, dragging a toolbox behind him "The Train of Thought was going a bit off the rails on the way up."

"We saw," Disgust said.

"Like last year," Sadness added, the look of it all too familiar to her.

"Or like when Riley nearly fell into—"

Disgust gave Anger a quick nudge, her voice part whisper part hiss. "Don't remind her, she can hear you!"

Anger grumbled in reply.

Outside, Riley cringed.

"Did you see Joy out there at all?" Fear begged.

"Not that we saw, no," Janice responded. "Then again, Long Term's a big place, and it was kinda hard to tell given how the train was rocking like a roller coaster that wanted to send us flying off."

"Can't say seeing that new Island exactly brought comfort either, that thing looks like bad news, working or not." The mind worker walked past the idea bulbs, toward the alcove where the intercom was. "What kind of Island is—"

 _Isolation Island._

Fritz and Janice both looked up in surprise at Riley's voice.

 _I'm calling it Isolation Island._

"Sheesh," Janice said, cringing as her gaze shifted over toward the window, "no wonder it looks so dark."

The emotions watched tensely as the mind workers inspected the broken intercom. Several times at least one member of the quintet would start to say something, only for them to be hushed.

In a way, Riley felt it was almost surreal. For the first time in the past few days, her head was mostly silent. That is, until she heard muttering from the mind workers and what sounded like tools at work.

Riley scrunched her eyes shut, unable to really focus on the Outside when all this was going on Inside. Then again, with only the indistinct chatter of students and the pounding of rain to focus on, hearing the voices Inside was almost a blessing.

Almost. Hard to consider it such when she had a malfunctioning intercom, a wayward Train of Thought, a new island, feeling isolated from others around her, and no Joy.

The nature of the conversation and noise Inside was only encouraging her to pay more attention than the emotions' daily workings. If the intercom could be fixed, then their connection could be turned off. She could still visit them through lucid dreaming, but she wouldn't hear them chatting all day, she wouldn't be accused of having schizophrenia, and her experience with the emotions could be shown to be real, at least to her. After all, schizophrenia symptoms didn't just disappear out of the blue because an intercom was fixed, right?

But if the intercom _couldn't_ be fixed... Riley's mind began to fill with what that could mean for her. And Joy wasn't exactly there to help bring up any perky positives.

Inside her head, the two mind workers turned to face the tense emotions. And the group's hearts plummeted when they saw the workers' faces before Fritz even said anything.

"Sorry guys, but we can't help with that. It's stuck for good."

Riley's head shot up. Her blank expression became a little less blank, a flicker of shock present in her eyes. _No... no, no, no, no!_

"What do you mean 'stuck for good'?!" Fear screamed, Riley's desperate mental pleading doing nothing to calm him, and vice-versa.

"There's a reason the intercom's not installed on the console. Quite a bit of risk of getting hit. If it's away from the console, away from risk of getting broken."

"Don't you have any sort of tools that can rewire it?" Fear pleaded, practically shaking Fritz in desperation.

Fritz quickly shoved the nerve away. "No can do." He looked back at the intercom before turning to the emotions again. "I mean, we could try to come up with something, but that would take time. Messing with it like this with what we have now could just make it worse."

The words seemed to echo in Riley's ears like a terrible bell that rang the truth to her. The one way out she thought of to fix this couldn't work out after all. Even with everything the Mind Workers could do to fix things up, this was beyond them. She would be hearing her emotions for the rest of her life.

Riley sharply exhaled, then inhaled, her gaze tilted downward. Purple joined the console's smokey color as another memory orb clinked into place.

"Good thing it didn't get broken any more than it did," Janice added.

"What do you mean?" Disgust asked.

"Putting it simply," said Fritz's companion with a grim tone, "it could have been broken to the point that Riley could have heard and sensed things that aren't even here in the Mind World. Like messed up static images and sounds on those old analog TVs."

Anger's eyes widened at that. "So if I had punched that thing harder..."

"Then Riley would have been hearing voices that aren't you guys," Fritz finished with a solemn nod. "You could've really messed her up."

"Well given we can't fix this thing it seems like she'd gonna already be messed up in the head..."

Janice trailed off at the sound of quiet sobs from Riley, and was met with the horrified, glaring expressions of both the emotions and Fritz. Janice looked a bit sheepish at the intercom. "Um, sorry, Riley."

At a loss for words, the young girl just sniffled in response, her tears mixing with the rain as those in Headquarters looked up at the screen. Memory orbs rapidly materialized that were first mostly red, then mixes of blue and purple. Then a gray of resignation blended with those.

Looking at the worsening progression of memories, Fritz turned back to the emotions. He looked hesitant on saying the words that wee on the tip of his tongue, especially since Riley would hear them. But as painful as it was, it was best for them to know.

"And, uh..." Fritz didn't meet the eyes of the others, looking reluctant to even say anything but knowing he had to be the bearer of more bad news, "we can't guarantee that it won't malfunction more."

" _WHAT?!_ "

Riley tensed up, and not only from the loud chorus of voices in her head. She was just as shocked as they were.

"You can't mean it might get _worse_ , right?!" Anger demanded, his face a firm scowl as he stormed forward, looking like he wanted to pummel the mind workers at the suggestion. "I mean, worse than it already is?!"

"Well, for now it seems pretty stable," Janice said, jotting down a few points on her notepad. "But we can't make any promises." She looked around Headquarters, surveying the gray memories and overall depressing atmosphere that Headquarters had taken on. "Especially with the way this place looks right now.

Riley's mental voice sounded choked when she did respond. _So... so you can't fix it?_

"The intercom, the console, they're mechanical things, Riley," Janice explained, shaking her head and making a final jot on her notepad. "Equipment can break." Her gaze then looked over at the console. "Or be tampered with."

The console turned a blend of purple, blue, and red in response. Riley's head lowered.

"Oops," Janice muttered, realizing she hadn't exactly helped Riley's situation with that statement.

"We'll try to think of some solution," Fritz added, "but right now it's not looking good..."

Fear's hands slid down his face, looking back and forth and seeming on the verge of fainting, or curling up and begging this was all some nightmare. "Ohhhh, what are we gonna do?!" He started scurrying around Headquarters like a frantic mouse in a maze, all kinds of terrible thoughts running through his head. "Joy's gone, Isolation Island's here, half the core memories are gone, Gloom's effects are still bad, the intercom might get worse and Riley might have to take medication or something to stop hearing us..."

Riley's head then lifted up. The beings in Headquarters half-expected to see the place were an idea bulb would usually be inserted into the console to glow, Riley in agreement with Fear's proposed scenario.

"You might be right..."

Fear blinked in surprise, tilting his head toward the screen. He could sense Riley's eyes narrowing, the console turning a shade of red amidst the smoke-like shade. The purple emotion honestly wasn't sure whether he could consider it a good thing or not in this case, but he was leaning towards "bad". "What?"

"Maybe that's a good idea..."

The emotions looked at the screen from behind the console as Riley whipped out her phone and quickly started typing, the silence broken by a cry of surprise from Disgust.

"Riley, what are you looking up?" Disgust asked, though based on the girl's earlier words she had a feeling what it was.

 _Antipsychotic medications,_ Riley thought to them in a dulled tone. _There's no way I'm telling Mom and Dad and having them monitor me before sending me to a mental hospital... Maybe if I just take one or two it'll work, just to try..._

Disgust couldn't help but have a bit of nervousness creep into her voice, especially as the console began to glow red. She wished Joy was here to say something a bit more positive, but she bean to doubt even Joy could help at this point. "Um, Riley, that might not be a good idea."

 _The intercom's busted forever, remember?_ Riley snapped bitterly, her voice harboring despair as well as she typed faster. _Either I try this or I hear you guys forever every day for the rest of my life._

The four remaining emotions inside her head paused.

 _I could still talk to you guys at night, but I wouldn't be too bothered during the day. It would solve everything._

"Bad idea," Disgust insisted. "Seriously, Riley, that stuff can be dangerous. Plus, don't you usually need a prescription?"

Riley let out a bitter snort, rolling her eyes as the console flashed green. _I don't want Mom and Dad to think I'm even more crazy. They'll be saying to me,_ here her mental voice adopted a sarcastic tone, with anger and fear creeping in as more mixed memories appeared on the shelves, _'Riley, did you take your meds? Riley, are they affecting you? Riley, do we need to hospitalize you?'_

"But if you don't do that, how are you gonna—" Disgust began, but Riley cut her off.

 _I'll find some way to get it. I might just ask Ann to borrow ten dollars or something._

Fear let out a squeak of alarm. "You wouldn't!"

 _I would._

"Wha—wait a minute!" Anger said, quickly butting in. "Yeah, things stink right now, but—"

The console flashed a shade of red as dark as Anger's skin, then purple that seemed almost the color of a fearful core memory. _Like you said, I messed this up, so let me fix this!_

At Riley's shout, everyone fell silent. The loss of Honesty's core memory wasn't doing Riley any favors.

Eventually, Fritz was the one to break it, packing up his tools and giving the others a resigned expression. Nothing he could do or say at this point would help. "Eh, speaking of fixing, the team and I will see if there's anything we might be able to come up with to make this intercom thing more manageable."

"What about Joy?" Fear asked.

Janice looked back at him as she and Fritz went to the door to Headquarters. "We barely got here in one piece as it is. If Joy's gonna be found, it's gonna have to wait until Riley comes back here."

"But that'll be tonight at the earliest," Sadness pointed out. "Assuming she doesn't find a recall tube first."

"Well it's not like Joy could do much with that console anyway," Janice pointed out as she indicated the misty-gray console with her thumb. "You want your emotional balance back, you're gonna have to wait and just hope this situation can be fixed." She sighed, following Fritz out the door. "Somehow."

With that, the door closed, and moments later the Train of Thought began its rickety ride through the darkened sky.

Riley put a hand to her forehead, rubbing it. "If I don't take medication, what do I _do_ for the problems Outside?"

"Riley," Sadness said, "what about your plan to see us in the outside world?"

As desperate as Riley felt, she sighed. "I just have to hope it works. Either seeing you guys will work... or everyone really _will_ think I'm crazy."

"And then what?" Anger dared to ask. "Are you gonna..."

Riley said nothing.

* * *

Eventually, though, Riley forced herself to go to hockey. It was one of the few functioning Islands she had left, anyway, and it was best to keep up at least some appearance of her being fine.

Arriving home, Riley had tried to make her conversation minimal. "Hi."

Riley didn't notice the worried expressions on her parents' faces, but her mom tried her best to get some positivity from her. "Oh, Riley, how'd school go—"

"Good.". Lie or truth, she wasn't in the mood for talking at the moment. "Ann and Jordan were gonna practice our band later today."

"Well, do you—"

"I just want to go to hockey right now, okay?"

As Riley stuffed her hockey equipment into her duffel bag, Bill and Jill leaned close to each other, their voices lowered.

"We'll ask her about the drawings after hockey," Bill whispered.

Part of Jill just wanted to ask her daughter what was going on, but now wouldn't be the time for that given Riley's apparent mood. Best to wait til tonight. "That would probably be best," she agreed.

But the two held gazes for a moment. What would really be "best" was to have their happy girl back.

As the family drove over to the rink, the older Andersens found the silence in the car to be uncomfortable, especially with Riley just staring at her phone or looking out the window. It seemed as if their normally chatty, cheerful girl had disappeared.

"So, Riley," her mom said to break the silence, "want us to drop you off at Ann's after—"

"Can we just talk about this later?" Riley snapped. "Maybe hockey will help me clear my head..."

Her parents looked at each other in the front seat. Clearly Riley wasnt in the mood to talk to them, and definitely not a good time to bring the drawings up. After hockey would have to do.

"Have a good practice, monkey!" her dad called, trying to be cheerful despite the worry that was filling his head.

"Sure," Riley said, only giving a half-hearted wave before shutting the door behind her, not looking back.

Watching Riley go into the building, Bill leaned back in his seat. "I really wish I knew how to help her."

"Me too," Jill admitted, feeling a headache coming on. When she turned to look at her husband, she saw the same concern she felt reflected in his eyes. "Honey, what if—"

She paused, suddenly hearing her phone ring and pulling it out of her purse. She paused, not recognizing the number, but picking it up.

"Hello?" Jill held the phone up to her ear, frowning a moment as she listened. "Mr. O'Brian? Oh, Riley's psychology teacher..." Alarm bells seemed to ring in her head at that. Why would Mr. O'Brian be calling?

A few moments later, her eyes widened as she gasped, causing her husband to look at her in concern. A concern that only grew with the next words that Jill said as if the fact that one of Riley's teachers were calling wasn't worrisome enough.

"Riley did _what?_ "

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that certainly could have gone better. ^^; Regarding the Island name, I debated for a bit with myself concerning what to call the new Personality Island. Some of the ideas were Depression Island, Gloom Island, Guilt Island, and Apathy Island before finally setting on Isolation Island.**

 **I have no idea what Jordan's parents jobs are in canon, or his last name, but I thought it would be kind of funny to include, so I just went with it. If we ever get some sort of confirmation to the contrary I'll change it up though. ^^;**

 **I initially had the Puberty alarm go off here, but I wanted to at least include the explanation as a Life Sciences thing as the emotions and Riley realize that that's what the alarm is signifying, to give the chapter a lighter moment among the darkness. So as it is, I will have it go off in the fic sometime... eventually... but not now. ;)**

 **By the way, little trivia: Janice is named after Janice Litman from the show** ** _Friends_** **. Why? Because I felt Maggie Wheeler's voice fit, plus, I love** ** _Friends_** **. :)**

 **Also, initially, I was going to have this chapter end at the point where Riley confronts her parents, since that was actually one of the first parts of the chapter I started typing up. But I realized that not only was this chapter getting long, but I also realized I was rushing through the confrontation more than I needed to. And I want to be able to give it and the other after-school events the attention they deserve (especially the confrontation), rather than just rishing through it to get the chapter out. ^^; So you'll have to wait for the next chapter for that. ;) But anyway, that's all for this chapter! See you next chapter and remember to review!**


	23. Rage and Betrayal

**A/N: Hey everyone, I'm back! I know that last chapter had quite a few rewrites, but I feel like the final version as I changed it (Joy going out of Headquarters from her own choice, the puberty button not going off etc.) works out a lot better. It doesn't seem like a contrived history repeats kind of plot as much and doesn't seem so lazy this way, especially with having Joy out of HQ as a sort of sadistic choice rather than it being an accident. It flows a lot better and works for the story better. With that said, ley's see how hockey and Riley's discussion with her parents turns out.**

 **Also, reason this wasn't updated for a month_ever have it where you leave something for a while, then come back to it only to have a touch time getting to it again? That was how I felt here, and I'm also working on my own novel.**

 **And Joshua, happy slightly belated birthday, have this chapter as a present! Also happy belated birthday to Sigmund Freud!**

 **Also, final note before I get started regarding the beginning of Intercom being slice-of-life and now it's in darker drama territory—I never intended it to be a slice of life story. While I had a different idea for the plot at first, it was always going to go in a darker direction. Yes, medication thing included.**

* * *

In Riley's mind, away from the chaos of the Outside world, Joy was barreling through the tubes, trying frantically to grab onto any memories that she saw zoom by. She wasn't sure how far these memory matricies went, or how long it would take for her to get back home.

But for now she wasn't focusing on how much time it would take. Her prime focus was locating Riley's missing core memories, then going home. If she could find even one it might make things a little easier, for both her and Riley. Find the core memories, get them sent up, find a recall tube to get back up to Headqurters, or the Train, whichever was closest.

Simple in theory, a lot harder in practice...

 _If I had all the orbs with me, I'd try to just go whatever path would take me to one of the memory bins... agh, I can't even tell which way is actually_ down _anymore!_

Speeding through the maze of tunnels and starting to feel a bit dizzy, Joy's body was propelled downward again, seeing a path to the left during her descent.

And the bright glow of an orb becoming brighter as it was heading into the same path. The brightness of a core memory.

 _Yes!_

Hugging her arms close to her body to give herself more momentum, the yellow emotion frantically looked toward the left path. Just as she started to go by it, her eyes widened as the fainter but still bright memory met her sights. And would have slammed into her face if she hadn't managed to grab it.

Grabbing the orb and holding it close so as not to let it escape, Joy took a close look at the memory.

 _It's Possibility Island's!_

Joy's expression then softened to one of sad relief. If Riley remembered her bond with the emotions, she wouldn't be so mad at them. But it was only one step to make sure Riley would be herself again...

Joy's resolve returned. No dwelling on the negatives. Negative wouldn't help Riley. If anything, at least having Possibility Island's memory would help Riley be know her emotions were there for her. At least it could be some improvement.

Joy set her gaze to look for any other hint of color within the tubes. One memory down, four to go.

Or at least, three more to get to return to Headquarters. The fourth, Isolation, had to be disposed of. But either way she still had to find it first.

With another sharp turn to the right, Joy was then sent over a crest and downward, her eyes finally meeting the rest of the Mind World as she headed out, finally landing in a bin of memory spheres. Gazed, she looked around at all of them.

None of them were core, much to her dismay. But at least she was finally at Long Term's shelves, much more varied in color than last year.

She wasn't exactly sure where in Long Term she was—at least, she wasn't in the Mind World Visit section—but at least she could send the one core memory she had up. The Mind Workers did it, she could too.

"Don't worry, Riley," Joy said, removing a blue memory from the shelves and placing Possibility Island's memory there instead, remembering how Paula and Bobby had sent up the gum commercial jingle over a year earlier. "I can fix this."

Back then, she hadn't been sure if the core memories would work in Headquarters without her, and she had been quite lacking in the trust department. But now she trusted the judgement of her fellow emotions more; they all understood one another.

And on top of that, all of her core memories now were varied, carrying more than one emotion energy with them. Even if Possibility Island _had_ been a solely happy memory, like it or not Riley had command of the console for the time being. All Joy needed to do was send it back, and Riley would be one step closer to recovery.

Hopefully.

For a moment, Joy paused, noticing that Possibility Island's memory was still there on the shelf. A perplexed frown crossed her face as she peered closer at it, trying to push the memory back to have some sort of hole open up, but only meeting the resistance of the golden-colored shelf in response to her efforts. "Now _how_ did those Mind Workers get—"

It was then that one of Joy's fingers caught on a panel underneath the memory, causing it to flip up slightly before falling down again. The yellow emotion's eyes lit up, daring to let a grin cross her face as she wrapped her finger underneath the panel again and flicked it upward, sending the shining white core memory up the recall tube straight to Headquarters.

"Yes!" Joy exclaimed, watching the brilliant light of the core memory get smaller and smaller as it sailed up toward Headquarters. "One core memory going back, three to go!"

As she placed the blue memory back in its proper place, Joy then turned to look around, the scope of her mission hitting her again. She was probably near the center of Long Term Memory; she couldn't exactly ride the Train of Thought all around Long Term or try to teleport to find where the right memories were. If only Riley were here.

She'd have to rely for now on luck and her not-too-keen sense of direction, and hope that somehow it would be enough.

Joy kept a careful eye on the memory shelves as she walked toward where she hoped more memory bins might be. Searching for any memory that was significantly brighter than the rest.

Or pulling the color from everything around it.

If there was one good thing about Isolation Island's memory being infected by Gloom, it was that once she got closer to it, she'd know.

* * *

At the ice rink, Riley sat down on the bench, tying her skates onto her feet and only glancing at the others on the rink. Her friends on the Foghorns team were giving her waves, calling her over, but she only give them a half-hearted wave of acknowledgment. She even managed a smile, but it was forced.

"Well, you still have Hockey Island, maybe this won't go so badly," Fear said in Riley's head. "That's good right? You calm?"

"No, I'm not calm, but hockey will help me clear my head," Riley muttered. "I need to let my energy out." Her grip on her hockey stick as she reached for it seemed unusually firm, as if she had a deeper resolve than normally in a practice.

"Wait," Disgust said, "you're not saying you're planning on taking your anger out on everyone else, are you?"

"Whatever helps."

Anger's eyes widened a bit. "If you go too far you might knock someone's teeth out. And even _I_ never gave you enough drive to knock someone's teeth out!"

"Well what am I supposed to do?" Riley snapped, putting her helmet on.

"How about you pretend to break your leg?" Fear advised quickly.

"Or _really_ break your leg," Anger added. "Then you can avoid going to school tomorrow too."

"Then she'll have to go to the hospital and get a dumb cast or something!" Disgust argued.

Riley winced a little at the word 'hospital'. "Could you guys please give me an additional hockey memory to boost my confidence or something?"

"Right, hockey memory, good idea." Fear approached the console, relieved that at least the memory recall button was the one bit of console control that they could have—they weren't sure how Riley would have properly gotten through the day without it.

A gold-colored memory descended from the ceiling and projected onto the Mind's Eye, Riley recalling one of her past hockey games where she had scored the winning shot after an extremely close game. Maybe there _was_ a shot of beating the other team—

In that moment, the hockey memory was knocked away by another that had come up the recall chute, and Riley's eyes widened, as did those of the emotions in her head. This memory wasn't related to hockey, but instead showed Riley and her emotions. And was all the colors of the spectrumt...

The four remaining emotions let out cries of relief.

"It's Possibility Island's core memory!" Disgust exclaimed.

"Quick, let's get it back into the core memory holder!" Anger argued. "Before something else happens!"

Fear was already on it, being the tallest of the remaining emotions and easily removing the memory. Racing to the core memory holder, he placed Possibility Island's memory in one of the indents.

And much to the relief of both the emotions and Riley, Possibility Island lit up in full force just as before.

"Thanks, guys." For once today, Riley actually sounded... well, not happy, but a bit alleviated from everything that was going on. Like there was a little ray of sunshine.

Fear actually had the strength to let out a relieved laugh. "One of our Islands is back, guys! We're one step closer to getting things back to normal!"

"But where are the others?" Disgust asked, glancing toward the ceiling as if expecting the other core memories to tumble back through at any moment.

"They must have gotten a lot farther," Sadness said thoughtfully. "Joy probably hasn't gotten to them yet."

"Well at least we got one back, and I can still play," Riley muttered, properly donning her helmet and picking up her hockey stick. "You guys can talk, but only if you have some really important to say. Don't talk all the time." She skidded onto the ice, knowing that since Hockey Island was present she'd be able to play efficiently. She could put all her power into this.

She had to. She had to let off steam, she had to get her pent up feelings out, she had to use this energy that she hadn't used at school...

Sliding toward the blue line as the Foghorn's leading forward, Riley tries to take deep breaths as she narrowed her eyes. _Okay, eye on the puck, eye on the puck..._ She carefully met the eyes of the Cobra's lead forward, a brown-eyed, black-haired girl who had been on the Cobra's team longer than Riley with the Foghorns'. But Riley wasn't going to let that stop her.

"3... 2... 1..."

The whistle blew, and the teams went at each other.

Riley's brow furrowed in concentration as she swiped at the puck, but missed as the Cobra's forward managed to get the puck in her possession. Practically feeling blood roaring in her ears. Riley raced after her as if her life depended on it. She ignored the calls and shouts of the other team memobers from both sides, only keeping her eye trained on the puck.

And she wasn't about to let anyone get in her way.

Sharply turning to let her skates scrape along the ice, Riley knocked into the Cobra's forward, barely registering the other girl's cry from her harsh shove. All that mattered was getting the puck to the goal.

With Riley keeping her focus straight ahead, she wasn't focusing on the corners of her eyes. The emotions, however, were.

"Um—" Sadness was about to warn, but Fear beat her to it.

"RILEY, LOOK—!" Fear started to scream, before Disgust quickly managed to cover his mouth, muffling his scream.

"She said talk a little, not _scream_ ," Disgust pointed out.

Riley tensed up at Fear's shout, one of the Cobra's team members flying by to get the puck from her. Letting out a snarl, Riley managed to see him just in time and roughly shoved him to her left with the butt end of her hockey stick, sending him sprawling onto the ice.

"Focus Riley," Anger said. "You're being a bit too—"

But Riley refused to listen, her hands practically digging into the hockey stick as she ignored the cries of the other teammates. She had the goalie in her sights, and nothing was going to stop her from reaching it.

Fear gripped onto Sadness and squeezed her like she was his lifeline, feeling like he needed to hold onto something or he'd risk screaming and distracting Riley.

"Riley, I'm ope—OW!"

The shout of her fellow teammate skating just ahead on her right had only caused Riley to react as if by instinct. Anyone else who was chasing after the hockey puck was an enemy in her frenzied, fragile mind, and she had slammed her hockey stick sharply to the right to knee her fellow Foghorn teammate onto the ice.

"Um, Riley?" Sadness said quietly with a wince. "I think you can stop now..."

Riley's eyes only narrowed, either dodging or smacking into any hockey players who were within range. She swung her stick back, ready to swing—

The whistle blowed, throwing off her aim, but she had put as much force into her swing as she could. The Cobra's goalie tried to smack the puck away as it sped toward him like a bullet, but he managed to block it with his foot, causing him to stumble.

"Riley Andersen!"

Riley winced at the tone, turning to see the referee speeding towards her and coming to a stop in front of her. She gripped the hockey stick tightly with both hands, looking almost as if she were threatening to swing it at him. She saw a few of the others on the ice looking at her but staying back. As if they were afraid of her.

The referee did not look happy. "What is going on with you today? Several instances of butt-ending and elbowing—"

"But—"

"—aggressive behavior toward your teammates—"

"But—"

"—causing injury, you're being far too aggressive to play today."

"They're benching her?!" Fear cried.

Unfortunately, Fear's suspicions were confirmed as the referee gave Riley a disapproving look. "I'm sorry, but I have to give you a match penalty. You're suspended for the rest of practice."

" _What?!_ "

Inside Riley's mind, the console was consumed by red.

"Uh oh," Anger said.

Riley shot the referee a hostile glare before letting out a cry of frustration, speeding toward the rink exist as fast as she could without acknowledging anyone else. She threw her hockey stick on the ground with a clatter, sitting down next to her duffel bag and removing her skates as well. She tossed her left one against the rim of the rink first, then the right, letting the sound echo in her ears before she buried her face in her arms.

For a while, there was silence in her mind as the seething red on the console began to fade.

"At least you didn't knock anyone's teeth out," Disgust said, trying to think of a Joy-ish thing to say in the yellow emotion's absence.

Positive attitudes weren't exactly cheering up Riley that day, and she only let out a sharp huff, staring straight ahead now without really focusing on what was going on. The day just kept getting worse and worse.

"Maybe it would have been better if I didn't feel much in that match," Riley finally mumbled.

"You mean just _let_ Gloom take over?" Fear squeaked, glancing over at the newly red memory that had appeared on the shelves.

The light gray glow that had been present much of the day returned as red faded from the console. Of all the times for Riley to fight to get a flare of emotion, it had to be then.

"You really should have just kept your distance from them," Disgust quipped, giving a worried glance in the direction of Riley's sight.

It was then that all of the emotions turned at a small gasp from Sadness, the blue emotion suddenly the center of attention. Her eyes were wide behind her glasses.

"What's with you, Sadness?" Disgust asked.

Sadness averted her gaze from the emotions, looking instead toward the Islands. " _That's_ why Riley created Isolation Island..."

"Huh?"

"Her feeling isolated would have her not be confrontational," Sadness said in realization. "If its core memory was still there, Riley might not have been so feirce during hockey."

"So because she felt like staying away was a bad idea," Fear started, beginning to catch on.

"—Then she let out her tension the only way she could in that situation," Sadness finished with a solemn expression.

"By beating the crap out of them," Anger finished.

"But you saw what it was doing to the other core memories," Fear argued, knocking a gray core memory away from him on the ground like it was poisonous. "If Isolation Island had stayed it would have made the other memories depressed!"

"It still might."

The emotions stopped their debating at Riley's glum tone, their girl still staring numbly at the rink as her teammates and opponents sped by.

"If Isolation Island gets put into Long Term, it could corrupt the other memories there too," Riley pointed out. Purple and blue briefly appeared on the console before fading back to the dulled misty gray. "Then all of them will..."

Fear's eyes widened at that. "Okay, I take it back. It would have been good in that one instance, but that's it, right?" He whipped his head around at Sadness. "Right?"

"... I don't know," the blue teardrop finally admitted. She looked over toward the window outside Headquarters, the sky not looking anywhere near as cheery as the Outside world's did. "But Riley could have used it."

For several minutes, there was silence between Riley and her emotions. Until Sadness pulled a memory from the shelves of Riley talking to Ann and Jordan.

"Why not call Ann?" the teardrop suggested, projecting the memory onto the Mind's Eye, allowing Riley to think of that particular moment. "She might be able to cheer you up."

"Or make things worse," Anger grumbled.

Riley sighed, pulling out her phone. "Guess so," she muttered. "I don't have anything else to do here now."

* * *

At that moment, Ann and Jordan were in the section of her garage that wasn't reserved for her parents' cars. A shelf stood nearby for various guitar books and songs, but those were for the most part collecting dust. The band trio had their own music choices.

"Okay," Ann said, trying to be upbeat as she removed her pink flower-print folder from her backpack and propped it up on the stand at the front, "time for Atomic Alibi to get started!"

"Anonymous Nachos," Jordan corrected.

Ann rolled her eyes. "No, Atomic Alibi."

"Anonymous Nachos is better!"

"It's too goofy. Atomic Alibi sounds cooler."

"I like mine bet—"

"If we keep debating about the name we'll never get our songs done!" Ann exclaimed with a laugh.

Jordan sighed sheepishly. "Point taken."

"So let's get ready and we can wait for—"

It was then that she stopped, hearing her phone buzzing in her pocket. She hurriedly pulling it out and noticed who was calling, her expression brightening hopefully as she turned to Jordan. "Riley's calling!"

"Already?" Jordan asked, arching his brow. "I thought hockey practice wasn't over for another 20 minutes."

"Maybe they ended early," Ann suggested, eagerly swiping across the phone's surface to answer. "Hey Riley, what's up?"

"I'm not coming over today," Riley immediately said, her tone the exact opposite of Ann's—bitter and monotone.

"Are you okay?" Ann asked cautiously, noticing Jordan frown.

"I'm fine." Ann could practically hear Riley gritting her teeth.

"You don't _sound_ fi—"

"Hockey practice just sucked," Riley interrupted. "I got benched."

"Oh." Ann's expression fell a bit. "Well, uh, maybe if you just come over for a few—"

Unknown to Ann, the console within Riley's head turned deep red and purple, the stress and desperation in her head spilling over, much to the unease of her emotions, who backed away.

"I just _can't_ , okay?!" Riley snapped. "I got benched at hockey, I have a test to make up for cheating, and _I'm hearing frickin' voices in my head that I can't stop!_ "

Ann held the phone away from her ear, staring at it as if it had threatened to explode. She had a feeling that if Riley had shouted more, her ears would be ringing. It was the closest she had ever heard Riley to swearing,

"Riley, please, wait! We can he—"

" _I'm not sick and I don't need help!_ I'll see you tomorrow!"

"But—"

Her only response was a click and a beeping to indicate the call had ended. With a dejected sigh, Ann lowered the phone and placed it back in her pocket.

"Didn't go well, huh?" Jordan said after a moment.

"No," Ann said, leaning down to place her phone in her backpack. "Riley was giving me an earful for trying to help."

"So, we're without our drummer for today, huh?"

"Looks like it," Ann sighed. She went over to her guitar case and popped the lid open, her red and white guitar coming into the garage's lighting as she picked it up, slinging her guitar strap over her shoulder. For a few moments, she was silent, finally clearing her throat to speak. "So, what song should we work on?"

The silence had begun to make Jordan feel rather uncomfortable, so he was glad that his friend had spoken up to break it. He cleared his throat. "Um, how about we go with "My Demons"?"

"Sure." Ann removed the packet for the song, straightening the bent edges from being stuffed with other rock and pop songs. She glanced back at Jordan to her left. "Ready?"

"Yeah," Jordan replied, shuffling his music together as well before glancing over to his right. Ann's silver-colored drumset lay unoccupied, the drumsticks abandoned. The boy let out a sigh. "It's not the same without Riley playing since she joined us, this sing has awesome drum parts. Are you _sure_ she's not coming over?"

"Positive," Ann said as she worked to properly tune her guitar. "She sounded pretty ticked off over the phone. Plus she has to study for her make-up bio test tomorrow."

"Oh yeah," Jordan said, wincing in sympathy as he recalled their earlier conversation. "That sucks."

"Tell me about it." With a resigned sigh, Ann strummed a few practice notes on her guitar before starting to sing, albeit not as clearly as she normally did.

" _Mayday! Mayday!_

 _The ship is slowly sinking.  
They think I'm crazy but they don't know the feeling.  
_

 _They're all around me,  
Circling like vultures.  
They wanna break me and wash away my colors.  
Wash away my colors._

 _Take me high and I'll sing,_  
 _Oh you make everything okay, okay, okay,_  
 _'Kay, Okay, Okay._

 _We are one in the same,  
Oh you take all of the pain away, away, away,  
'Way, away, away.  
_

 _Save me if I become,_  
 _My demons._

 _I cannot stop this sickness taking over._  
 _It takes control and drags me into nowhere..._ "

Ann trailed off, the movements of her hands becoming slower.

Jordan at first didn't notice, and had been quietly singing to himself.

" _I need your help—_ "

The moment Jordan realized that Ann was no longer singing and she could hear him, he stopped, looking over at her in confusion. "Why'd you stop playing?"

On any other day, Ann would have made a humorous quip about his singing. But today, unfortunately, was not "any other day". Ann dropped her hands to her sides, turning back to her friend with a somewhat defeated expression. "I don't think I can really do this song right now," she admitted. "I'm too worried."

Jordan instantly understood. "About Riley?"

"Yeah." Ann sat down in the chair, adjusting her guitar strap to let it rest more comfortably around her shoulder. "That song just has me think about how she... I know that whatever's going on with her voices is serious, and she _needs_ help, but whenever I try to suggest it to her, she snaps at me! If she really does have schizophrenia..." Ann sighed and trailed her gaze downward as she dwelled on her best friend's distraught state. "I don't know what to do."

Jordan looked pensive for a moment, placing his bass guitar on the seat beside him before speaking. "I'm not exactly the best at advice, but... we could tell my mom about it."

Ann turned to Jordan so quickly that for a moment he was afraid she was going to fall into a tangled heap on the floor. She had a fearful look in her eyes that seemed as if he had just said he was planning on diving into a shark tank blindfolded. "Are _you_ crazy?!"

"Well you have more classes with Riley than I do, and you said she needs help." Jordan reasoned, taken aback by the sudden manner of Ann's statement, especially how harsh it was in contrast to her usual caring and enthusiastic personality. "What else can we do? We gotta think of some way to—"

"I know, I know," Ann fretted, "but that's not the way to do it!" Hoisting her guitar strap over her head to let the instrument rest beside her, she stood up and started to pace around. "Riley seems to just keep pushing us away the harder anyone tries to get through to her. I'm worried that if we push her too much she might try something really drastic to get away from us!"

Jordan's expression faltered, and if Ann had focused on his features she would have practically been able to see the unpleasant possibilities running through his head. "Well we can't just let her deal with the schizophrenia thing on her own. Maybe we could just ask my mom to be subtle—"

"She already thinks I'm turning against her!" Ann protested. "She might think we're traitors and not want to be our friend anymore!"

"I think you're being paranoid," Jordan said, though Ann could tell without looking at him that he was concerned too. "Again."

Ann turned over toward him, nearly knocking her stand over with her guitar in the process. "What do you mean 'Again'?"

"Remember two years ago when I joined that band club and you thought I was going to abandon you as a friend?"

"Yeah..."

"And true friends would never do that, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So why think Riley would?"

Ann's only response was a sigh.

Jordan frowned, drumming his against his music stand, not sure what to do. "Okay, so Riley doesn't want to talk today. We can practice today without her and maybe she'll feel better after retaking her test."

"And if she doesn't?"

The boy fell silent. Ann was usually so enthusiastic about playing in her band—even more than drawing comics—that seeing her so upset about Riley was almost jarring for him. Though he couldn't blame her—Riley's behavior was troubling to him too, even though he had much more of an interest in AC/DC than psychology.

Shaking her head, Ann adjusted her strap again, getting out the other songs she had packets of. "I think we should play a more upbeat-sounding song."

"So no 'Give Me a Sign', huh?" Jordan asked.

Ann shook her head. "That has me think about Riley too," she said sadly. "She's falling away from us."

Jordan fumbled through a few of his packets before glancing in her direction, searching for any song in their repertoire that might cheer Ann up. "How about... 1985?"

"Bowling for Soup's song?"

"What other '1985' song is there?"

"I was kidding." Ann turned backward to glance at Jordan. Much to his relief, he saw a faint smile cross her face. "I'd like that one."

But just before she turned back to her guitar, Jordan saw the flicker of unease that twitched on Ann's face to lessen her smile.

All they could do was hope Riley would be better by tomorrow.

* * *

Unfortunately, Riley was far from better, as the moment that she hung up the phone, a loud rumbling was heard from outside Headquarters. The emotions turned freezing up.

"Oh no! Oh no no no no!" Fear cried, racing over to the window with the other emotions on his heels. "Friendship Island is—"

He stopped. Though parts of Friendship Island were indeed collapsing and falling into the Memory Dump, as well as Boy Band Island looking a bit worse for wear, miraculously Friendship Island was still hanging on.

"... Still standing." Fear nearly fell over in relief, but looked perplexed at the same time. "I mean, that's good, but... why's it still standing?"

"When she ended the Skype call with Meg last year it fell almost instantly," Anger added. "Yet somehow this one's okay—"

"I think I know why," Sadness said, pressing her hands to the glass before looking at the others. "You said Riley felt completely rejected by Meg before, right?"

The other emotions nodded, and they even heard Riley mutter her agreement.

"Even though the phone call went badly, she still knows Ann cares about her," Sadness reasoned. "She doesn't feel rejected or like she wants to cut off ties with her and Jordan. So Friendship's rattled but still standing." She looked over toward Riley's viewscreen. "Right?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah."

The other emotions stared at Sadness.

"... Forget Riley's teachers," Disgust finally said, " _You_ should be a psychologist."

Though Sadness was touched by the compliment, it was clear that worry for Riley was still present.

* * *

Eventually, Riley's parents picked her up, and Riley tried her best to plaster on a smile. Of course, with the console graying, she barely could manage one.

"Hi monkey," her father called as she got in the backseat. "How was hockey?"

Riley shrugged. "Okay."

"Did your team win?" her mom asked after a moment.

"Yeah."

Jill and Bill looked at one another as Riley said nothing more. Their worry was palpable, but they knew this wasn't the best time to talk to Riley. They'd wait til they got home.

In truth, the closer they got to home, the more Riley felt dread. Thanks to the console's gray-colored tone, the dread was on a steady increase, only a brief spark at first that steadily grew to overtake the console. She had a feeling they were going to talk to her about something, and she wasn't going to like it. Probably her voices.

Entering the house, Mrs. and Mrs. Andesen gave Riley looks similar to when she had run away before. But this time they seemed even more concerned, like they suspected something was wrong with her. Mentally.

"Riley," Mrs. Andersen finally said. "Sit down with us at the table, okay? We... we need to talk to you."

Riley stiffened. Part of her wanted to just refuse, dodge the question, and race up to her room.

"What if they found out about the cheating?" Fear fretted. "Or her psychology breakdown!"

"Just keep it cool, okay?" Disgust said. "No anger bursts."

Said emotion turned to her. "Hey! I can't even affect the console now!"

"I _know_ you can't, genius!" Disgust retorted. "I'm just saying that maybe the icky gray unfeelingness can help in this case."

Riley wasn't sure, but it might be the best course of action. She shuffled over to the table, moving the chair backward with a creak before sitting down, her parents following after. For a moment, the three members of the Andersen family just stared at one another.

Finally, Mrs. Andersen spoke. "Riley," she said, "your psychology teacher called us today."

Riley's body went rigid, staring at her mother as the console inside her own head turned purple. Though she couldn't see inside her own head, the emotions understandably looked freaked out, Fear speaking among them. "They're gonna send her—"

"Shut up!" Disgust snapped. "Okay, Riley, you can do this."

"We're here, okay?" Sadness added.

Despite the emotional comfort, the 12-year-old was trying not to shake, unable to meet her parents' eyes. "W-What did he say?"

"He said that you skipped class after running out when he was talking about schizophrenia," Mrs. Andersen went on.

Riley's heart was pounding.

"And taking into account those voices you were hear—"

At hearing that, Riley came to the realization before her mother finished the sentence.

"You didn't _tell him_ , did you?!" Riley exclaimed, her voice breaking. Her hands balled into fists underneath the table as the console in her head became less gray.

"We—"

"We wanted to make sure..." her dad started, "he is a psychologist, after all, he'd be able to at least give advice—"

Riley opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Behind her eyes she was fuming, her expression becoming a hostile glower that she fought to hide. But Gloom or not, this burst of emotion was coming in quite strongly.

"What?!" Fear exclaimed. "They told?! This is bad, this is very _very_ bad!"

"We didn't tell him everything," her mother said quickly, as if fearing that Riley would blow up at them.

"Wait, everything?!" Fear cried. "What do they mean by that?!"

"They only know about Riley hearing voices," Disgust pointed out, looking both confused and wary. "What else is there to tell?"

"They shouldn't have told in the first place!" Anger growled. "All they're doing is making everything worse!"

Riley was so focused on the voices of her emotions that she almost missed her mother's response. "We reminded him that sometimes everyone hears voices on the edge of their hearing, so we didn't want to automatically imply we thought you might have it. But we _did_ ask him about the symptoms, and they..." she took a deep breath. "They seem to fit..."

"But what did they mean by _everything_?!" Fear demanded, practically screaming the words as he shook the unresponsive console and stared at Bill and Jill with a desperate expression.

It was then that they got their answer.

"And there's... something else we want to talk to you about," her dad went on. He looked over at his wife, giving her a slow nod.

Mrs. Andersen looked at her daughter with a distressed expression, slowly pulling out a folder from underneath the table. She opened it, pulling the papers out. Papers that were...

"We didn't tell him about these, but..."

The moment the pages were turned over onto the table to reveal the colors, Riley's heart stopped.

"We found these in your room."

Her drawings. Riley's drawings. The drawings of her emotions and the Mind World and...

Riley stared at them for a moment, an expression of shock overtaking her. She was only aware of her heart pounding in her chest, blood roaring in her ears.

 _They know. They know, they know! How did they find those?! How could they?!_

"Riley," her dad said gently, "are these things you've been seeing?"

Riley, mentally paralyzed, was uncertain what to say, so she simply nodded. "Sort of..." Kind of the truth, but no way was she going to explain the extent. "A-A little," she said." If by 'a little' she meant 'every single night'. "Some I kinda just... you k-know... made up..."

 _After all, it is my mind,_ she thought to herself. _How could they tell anything about it? It's_ better _, but they don't have to know._

Jill bit her lip, every word out of Riley's mouth only causing her to worry more. "Mr. O'Brian said that strong visual hallucinations are a symptom—"

 _No..._ The emotions in her head heard the horror evident in Riley's mental voice. The realization stuck with her that maybe it was all some sort of farce created by a deluded mind. No, that couldn't be. Her emotions were real, the Mind World was real. She couldn't keep up a hallucination for that long... could she? _They're real, they've gotta be real..._

"And these aren't like anything we've seen you draw before."

 _No, no..._

"Riley," Sadness whispered, "please, calm down..."

"And if they really _are_ visual hallucinations, they seem like an idealized world you've been retreating into—"

 _No, no, NO!_

"Riley," her dad finally said, "if these really are the kind of things you're seeing all the time... we may need to get you help."

In a flash, the gray all but vanished from the console as feeling fought back for control over gloom. Light was coming back to Riley's console, alight with purple and red. But primarily red. Then _exclusively_ red.

"Oh hot Belgian waffles," Anger said, his eyes widening, knowing this wasn't going to go well. "This is going to f—"

"Fall apart badly!" Fear interrupted quickly. He raced toward the console, as did Sadness, in a desperate attempt to get feeling through and calm Riley down. "Breathe, Riley, breathe! Don't get mad, don't get mad! Just run away or something, avoid it! Avoidance works!"

Sadness couldn't help but look back. Gloom or not, Isolation Island's influence might have been helpful right now.

But no amount of protest from them was going to work. Like a traffic light, Riley's demeanor changed as she quickly stood up, knocking the chair over in her haste. "I can't **_believe_** you! You went into my room, and looked through my stuff?!"

Her parents' eyes widened, both of them caught off guard at her sudden outburst.

"Riley—" her dad started.

Inside Riley's head, red orb after red orb shone among the purple and gray. "I can't _believe_ I thought I could trust you!"

"Riley, this is serious, we're really worried about you!"

Riley stormed off, shaking, hurrying up the stairs. And able to hear her parents rushing behind her.

"Riley, wait!"

" _NO!_ " Reaching her room, Riley turned back to them with an expression of pure anger and betrayal on her face as they were at the threshold. Her body shook with anger as she noticed that, indeed, a few things had been moved out of place where the drawings had been. "You were snooping!"

"We wanted to help you, sweetie," Jill pleaded. "We wouldn't have gone in if we didn't think this wasn't serious... and it _does_ seem to be serious."

"Some help you are!" Anger shouted from in Riley's head, though obviously they were unable to hear him. "Bet the only 'help' you wanted to give her is taking her to a shrink or a mental hospital! Going into Riley's room without permission certainly doesn't help any of us trusting you with her problems! Like _you_ have any idea what's going on in here! You're _supposed_ to be people Riley can _trust_!"

"Calm down, hothead!" Disgust exclaimed. She swallowed a bit as she noticed the console, practically able to feel Riley's turmoil seeping like a wave through Headquarters. "You too, Riley!" She winced. "Um, please?"

Riley was equally ticked off, the volume of Anger's voice not helping the situation, Disgust's plea falling on deaf ears. And Riley had a feeling that even if Joy were here to give any verbal input, she'd refuse to listen. The interior of Headquarters was nearly bathed in a mixture of red, purple, and gray.

Sharply turning away from her parents, Riley's fists clenched, slightly trembling. Just as her mother cautiously stepped forward to offer some comfort, Riley spoke. Her voice was quiet, near monotone. "... Get out of my room."

Jill's heart broke, reaching for her daughter to place her hand on her girl's shoulder. "Riley..."

But Riley swiftly turned to face them, smacking her mom's arm back and trying to shove both her parents away. The console inside her head glowed red and purple so completely that Fear worried that it might get stuck that way somehow, putting an overall dark atmosphere in Headquarters. "I _said_ get OUT of my room!"

"Riley—"

Riley's face contorted in a mixture of anger and fear. "I said _LEAVE_! Get out! Out! _OUT!_ _ **OUT!**_ "

"Sweetie, please, just let us help—!"

With that, Riley slammed the door, locking it shut and racing over to her bed, throwing herself onto it. She buried her face into her pillow, letting out a muffled scream of anger and fear. She clutched her pillow like it was a lifeline and she'd only let go of if she had a death wish.

The emotions's hearts broke at the slew of memories that came pouring in, the white film on all of them mostly overshadowed by varying shades of purple, blue, red, and gray.

Riley's tears eventually began to slow. And the emotions noticed part of the bridge of Family Island beginning to lean to the point of breaking apart. The blue that had been shining on the console faded with her tears, leaving by the mixture of red and purple that was becoming all too common for the emotions' liking.

As the moments passed, the purple on the console then began to fade in prominence to be replaced by a sickly green glow of disgust.

"I hate them," Riley muttered, her voice lowering as she wrapped her arms tightly around her pillow. Her tone was a mixture of despair and spite. "Who needs parents..."

The four emotions all looked at the screen, stunned at what Riley had just said.

"Riley..." Sadness said quietly.

Riley only buried her face in her pillow, not even thinking directly to them at first. Finally, mentally, she spoke to them.

 _I want to go back to the Mind World._

The emotions all looked at each other, uncertain what to say. Even Sadness found herself unable to figure out to provide comfort for their troubled girl.

Riley's expression then morphed into a scowl, and whatever purple was on the console was overtaken by red and green. In that moment, all Riley felt toward her parents was spite. Her fists clenched.

"No matter what," she muttered, "I'm going to find a way to get that medication."

Fear flinched. "But Riley!" he pleaded. "E-Even if you, ya know, do get money from Ann like you were planning, where are you gonna get it if you can't go to a pharma—"

When Riley responded internally, her mental voice sounded so vile that if it had a physical form, it would nearly be acidic. _Whatever a way is, I'll **find** it._

Fear gulped.

And things got worse from there as the brief silence was broken. Noise resounded from outside Headquarters. Over toward the Islands.

The emotions turned toward the core memories, afraid of what they might see. And they realized they had every right to be afraid.

Family Island was collapsing into the Memory Dump.

And in the outside chasm of Long Term Memory, Joy's heart stopped as the sound of an Island falling apart reverberated like a terrible earthquake that no one could stop.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, things did not exactly turn out the best for this chapter, huh? If there's any good news out of this it's that another Mind World visit is just around the corner, even though things aren't exactly sunshine and rainbows there right now either. Fact of interest: "Riley saying 'I hate them. Who needs parents?' is actually from one of the very earliest concept arts, back when the emotions controlled Riley's physiological responses, emotions like Pride were there, the emotions had human names, etc.**

 **Also, "My Demons" is owned by Starset—I actually discovered it a couple days ago, and I fell in love with the band. :D "Give Me a Sign" is owned by Breaking Benjamin, and "1985" is owned by Bowling for Soup—in fact, a couple later chapters were primarily inspired by a few Breaking Benjamin songs. Make of that what you will. Anyway, see you all next chapter (which will be out sooner) and remember to review!**


	24. (1-Year Interlude) What Could Have Been

Well guys, here's something a little, well, different. As was brought to my attention by both ConMan and Joshua (thanks guys) today is actually Intercom's 1-year anniversary. Wow, time flies, huh? Thing is, I wanted to do something special for this, to post _something_ on the day of the anniversary as a kind of milestone and a "Thank you" to everyone who's been sticking with the story so far, even if it's gone in a few not-so-pleasant directions.

But the thing is, I honestly haven't gotten to type any of the next chapter yet, and I don't want to have the milestone go by with either nothing happening, or a rushed chapter that you guys as readers don't really deserve. Hence, as indicated by the title, I can't give you guys a well-written non-rushed chapter today. So I'm giving you something else instead.

But first, I want to thank you guys. Even if you were one of the people who only read and reviewed one chapter, or have stuck through from the start despite the shifting toward drama, I appreciate every bit of feedback. Yes, that includes the reviews that point out spelling and wording errors—typical that you can catch mistakes in other people's writing but then when you look at your own writing there's often some you miss. ^^; You know why? Because first of all, it helps me get better, and second of all, it shows that I've written something that people enjoy. And third of all, I've gotten some ideas from you guys over time that have only helped to make Intercom better, so thanks to you guys for that!

And Joshua, I admit that you have a good point, that quite a few of my other stories are not as interesting and/or weaker, and I can totally see why, especially with my early stories: I was still learning to develop as a writer, especially since I was a teenager when I started writing fanfiction, and if I could, I'd go back and re-do them with the knowledge and expertise that I now have with writing (especially Silence and Song, since the new characters and such were rather weak back then and if I wrote it now, I could do leagues better) As for the two lesser IO stories you brought up, it's because "Don't Believe the Lies" and the React fic were basically random things I wrote on a whim, while Emotional Response and The Isolation Effect were things I'm writing with an overarching plot in mind (and I will update them soon enough). But point is, I also feel that Intercom has been like a turning point for me as a writer, because it's allowed me to focus on a more expansive aspect of plot and character development, which some of the other stories have been lacking. But hey, the more I practice, the better I get, and I'm working on a novel series so every bit helps! (I won't say anything about it until the first book is published though, but I will say it's fantasy-oriented).

Speaking of plot, time for the "something else" I wanted to share with you guys, as a celebration of Intercom's 1st Anniversary:

I'm going to share some aspects of Intercom's original plot.

Granted, not _all_ of them, as I can't go into more detail without spoiling some pretty big things to come (so as such I'll save the complete stuff for a bonus chapter at the end of the fic). But I figured that on the fic's one-year-anniversary you deserved to have something. So consider this a Part 1 of the "What Could Have Been" stuff, with Part 2 being a bonus at the fic's end.

So, what _was_ Intercom's original plot idea? Well, as I was writing the first couple chapters and figuring out where I wanted it to go, I got an idea spurred on by a guess for Inside Out itself I saw on TV Tropes: "Riley is her own worst enemy." Aspects of that still are present in Intercom as it is now, with it coming more into play later, but the plot took a completely different turn—well, it was still a drama, and it still got dark, but in a different way, more like a psychological thriller/horror. So that tag on the cover image that would seem to imply it was a horror story? It was originally going to be in a way.

Because in the original plot for Intercom, Riley was going to slowly lose her mind and go insane, dream/Shining-esque-style.

Basically, before I had an idea of how Dream Productions actually worked, Riley was going to begin to have constant nightmares of her going crazy. The thoughts would consume her during the day as well, and she'd talk to her emotions to try to calm herself down, though Dream!Riley would serve as a consistent antagonist, both in her thoughts and her dreams. After having one particularly scary nightmare where Riley's helpless to watch herself, locked away in an asylum while hallucinating memory orbs on the walls (as well as having drawn them), she becomes absolutely terrified that it's actually going to happen to her and sees it as being like an ominous message from the future. So she tries to prevent it, and assert she's not crazy, but it ends up becoming more and more of a self-fulfilling prophecy as the nightmares and the emotions slowly cause her to lose her mind. She eventually starts getting into fights at school after Sarah (the original name I gave to Tracy before I thought it sounded too plain) calls her a freak, and her parents put her on schizophrenic medication after the truth comes out.

Feeling helpless, Riley runs away due to her fear of what's going to happen to her, though eventually the emotions convince her to go back. She does so, and tearfully confesses to her parents what happened, claiming that no matter what they do the emotions are still going to be there.

And as for the rest? As River Song says in Doctor Who, "Spoilers!". Other parts of Proto-Intercom relate to certain places and events that haven't occurred in the main fic itself yet, but they'll come into play quite soon. So in a nutshell, Intercom was initially going to be less friendship-drama and more psychological-thriller-madness horror. So yeah, you think Intercom got darker and edgier? Proto-Intercom was arguably going to be even _darker_. Hence the nightmares, insanity, Joker-Dream-Riley persona... so once Intercom is over, I'll explain the plot aspects that were going to be that relate to future stuff. ;)

So once I saw the film, and I realized that 1, Dream Productions worked a bit differently than I thought, and 2, Riley already had a run-away-from-home moment in the film, I scrapped that idea, and upon getting The Art of Inside Out book, I came up with, well, the basics of the plot we're getting into now.

Other stuff:

-Chapter 3 was originally going to be called (H)Q and A, back when I was going to make it a chapter where Riley asks the emotions' more in-depth questions about their lives

-Ann and Jordan weren't going to be in the story (especially since as far as I knew when I started, they didn't exist)

-the initial first meeting of Riley in the Mind World was going to have everyone go to Dream Productions, including Anger and Joy

-Sarah/Tracy was going to be the main Outside conflict for Riley, but the primary conflict would have been her vs. Dream!Riley, and her own thoughts regarding that, so Dream!Riley would have in fact been the main antagonist, like an evil-dream-twin. Basically like a combination of Riley herself and The Joker. Hence the whole "Riley is her own worst enemy" guess from the film's page on TV Tropes.

-the main meat of the story was actually going to take place in an upcoming area that we haven't been to in the fic yet, but I realized that starting it right there would be too similar to "Floating in the Mind" (I actually got the idea for that a few hours before Floating in the Mind was first posted, frustrating irony!). Needless to say, all that's going to be 3rd act stuff—yes, we're getting to Act 3 pretty soon.

-Riley eventually taking medication was in the plans from the get-go, though as stated above, her parents prescribed it to her, rather than Riley having the idea to do it herself. ( **spoiler alert:** this aspect of proto-Intercom, I wanted to assure, _is_ going to come into play, as in truth I not only feel like having Riley get antipsychotic drugs from someone on the streets or something would not only bump this to a T-rating that I didn't intend, but I feel like it would make Riley a bit too deceitful and unlikable. And I find it important to actually, you know, _like_ the characters who are the protagonists, especially since Riley got far too little screen-time in the film itself.)

And as another bonus, I actually have a few segments of Intercom's initial proto-stages that I've had saved all this time, with no changes made to the originals except the spelling of Riley's last name (as I thought it was Anderson at the time and only learned it was Andersen later). So here's some stuff!

* * *

 **The Fight Between Sarah (proto-Tracy) and Riley:**

The other student's expression hardened. "You know what you are, Riley Andersen?"

 _Don't talk to her,_ Riley thought to herself, trying to stay calm as she walked away. _Don't talk to her, don't—_

"You're a freak!"

That did it. Riley froze before turning to face her, visibly hurt. "I'm _not_ a freak!"

"Only freaks talk to voices in their heads that only they can hear!" Sarah shouted. "It's called schizophrenia!"

Anger raced toward the control panel, taking control. "Come on, Riley, don't just let her—"

"Anger, no, it's fine…" Riley quietly hissed, not wanting to risk making this worse. But it was too late. Anger's emotional influence was in control.

"No, it's _not_ fine and you know it!" Anger insisted, setting his head ablaze, a heat that Riley could almost feel. "You have to DO something about it!"

"A-Anger," Fear stammered, "that's probably not the best idea…"

This wasn't fair to her. This was an injustice that had to be fought against. Anger was right. She _did_ have to do something.

The energy was there. The passionate desire for things to be fair for Riley. The surge of emotion was there thanks to Anger, but it was Riley herself who made the decision to act.

And act she did.

She lunged at Sarah, causing the other student to shout in surprise. Riley knocked her to the ground while Sarah whacked Riley with her bookbag.

"Oh crap!" Anger exclaimed, suddenly realizing that perhaps him deciding to be at the forefront then wasn't working out in Riley's favor. He had meant to help Riley resolve the injustice, but not in this way. He recalled what he had said before to Riley when they first started talking: _We may cause the feelings and guide you into acting, but for the most part_ you _decide how you're gonna respond to them._ "I meant for you to tell her off, not to _attack_ her!"

"She deserves it, Anger!" she shouted at Anger.

"See?!" Sarah exclaimed, trying to get away. "You're talking to your little voices again!"

That didn't help Anger, or Riley, but Anger resisted the urge to take more command. Riley had gone too far now, and it was up to the others to try to reel her out of this destructive behavior that she'd no doubt get in trouble for.

"No, no, _no_!" Fear shouted, hurriedly trying to get at the controls. "Riley, snap out of it!"

" _Shut up_ , Fear!" Riley heard and sensed the panicked purple emotion, but she didn't stop her attack. If anything, the fight-or-flight response that sparked within her fueled it more. She was afraid of what might happen to her, and the only way she knew how to stop it was to defend herself. She was dimly aware of some students shouting and running to get some of the staff.

A carefully aimed whack caused Riley to be knocked in the face as she fell to the side, giving Sarah just enough time to scramble away. Sarah looked at her with wide eyes, a flicker of fear present that caused Riley to pause. "Get away from me you _psycho freak_!" She glared and socked Riley on the nose, knocking her down again.

Riley swiftly brought a hand up to her nose, feeling blood rush from it. She tried to move it and winced in pain—her nose was probably broken. But Sarah's words hurt more than the physical pain.

* * *

 **The Principal's Office (taking place right after the last scene)**

"We're dead!" Fear exclaimed, pacing back and forth rapidly. "We're dead, we are _so_ dead!"

"It's _Riley_ who's gonna be dead from this, genius!" Anger snapped.

"Well we're gonna be dead from Riley being ticked at us once we're out of this meeting!" Fear clarified. "She'll totally kill us for it later!"

"Well at least we're in her mind so she can't—"

"Guys, shut up." Riley's voice was quiet, but just enough for her internal companions to hear. And, seeing as she was speaking through gritted teeth, she sure didn't sound happy.

The five of them paused as a red memory orb appeared on Headquarters' shelves, right next to some purples, blues, greens, and other reds from earlier. Not a good inventory for the day.

"… We're sorry," Joy finally apologized.

Riley seemed like she was about to respond, but she clammed up as the principal walked back into the room.

"Riley, your behavior today was unacceptable. You don't seem well. We heard from some of the other students that you've been hearing voices in your head."

"I'm not crazy," Riley insisted, her tone lowering.

"Well, these voices you were hearing drove you to—"

"They didn't tell me to do it, they tried to stop me!" Riley exclaimed, feeling a need now to defend them despite her acting on those feelings. After all, she had been the one to act, they hadn't forced her. "I just didn't listen."

The principal paused, giving her a queer look before sitting across from her in his chair. "Your behavior today," the principal said sternly, "suggests that something's wrong. Fighting is a serious thing at this school, and there has to be consequences for it."

Anger flared up again. "Sarah started it!" Both Riley and Anger said the words at the same time.

"The students who were witnesses all state that you started the attack," the principal said. "Sarah will suffer some consequences for verbally assaulting you like that, but she was trying to defend herself." He frowned, looking at the girl seriously. "But today you've shown that you're prone to violent outbursts of anger, fighting, and hearing voices, that doesn't look good, Riley."

As he went through the list of problems, Riley looked increasingly anxious. "I'm not gonna be expelled, am I?" She felt as if time had slowed to an agonizing crawl.

"No," the principal assured her quickly. "You're not going to be expelled."

Riley and her emotions sighed with relief.

"However…"

This snapped the six to attention again.

"I _am_ going to have to call your parents and suggest they take you to see a psychiatrist.

"What?!"

* * *

 **Riley's Decision to Run Away:**

"We could," Joy paused, "get the Intercom fixed."

"Huh?"

"Then you wouldn't hear us anymore. You'd just feel our presence like everyone else does."

Riley shook her head. "You don't have to… you're like family…" Even so, her voice wavered, still remembering her nightmare, something the other five noticed.

"But we _caused_ all this by talking to you in the first place," Joy said sadly.

"And your parents are sending you to that psychiatrist place for more 'tests'," Anger pointed out as he took control now. "And we know you definitely don't want to go there."

"Plus there was that whole nightmare thing," Disgust pointed out.

Riley fell silent.

She heard Sadness quietly add on, feeling the emotion that came with her presence. "Cutting off our connection… might be the best option."

Riley closed her eyes.

At first, the Emotions thought that Riley was thinking about the possibility of cutting off their connection, regretful as it would be. But they quickly realized there was something deeper about this silence, something a bit more final than pondering the possibility of giving them up.

And suddenly, the silence was broken. The view of Riley's world became visible again as the human girl opened her eyes. A new sense of purpose was present in her movements, a sharp contrast to her haphazard walking moments before.

"There's a third choice," Riley said, quickly going up to her room. There was a resolve in her voice that all five of her emotions noticed.

"What is it, Riley?" Anger asked.

Riley paused for a moment, her thoughts seemingly blank, having a last-second pause on if she actually wanted to do this. But she quickly made up her mind as she opened her backpack and then her closet, placing some clothes in her bag. Her eyes narrowed decisively. "I'm running away from home!"

"WHAT?!"

All five of the emotions tried to gain control at once; trying anything to get through to her.

"You can't run away!" Sadness protested. "You're only 11!"

Despair at leaving her family behind pricked at Riley's consciousness.

"It's dangerous out there for someone your age!" Fear exclaimed.

Worry took over. About how her family would react. About what might happen to her out there. Her fists clenched.

"Not to mention your parents will be worried sick," Disgust added.

"You're acting too rashly!" Joy pleaded.

A disdainful feeling surged through Riley's brain, Joy completely pushed away—the disgust at what her parents were thinking of doing was the final feeling before the dam of emotions burst.

"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" she demanded, whirling around to face her mirror. She stared at her own reflection, taking a few shaky breaths, then let her arms drop limply to her sides.

The emotions fell silent, both vocally and in feeling as they stepped away from the console. They didn't need to imagine what Riley's expression looked like in her distraught state. They could see it for themselves. Sweat and tears were both present on her face, her eyes harboring both determination and desperation to keep her mental friends, her internal family.

"You guys know I'm a terrible liar, and I already have those pills for my 'schizoaffective disorder'," Riley said, making air quotes at the words "schizoaffective disorder" and saying them with as much disgust as she could muster. "I won't be able to lie and say I'm not hearing you anymore when I talk to you every day. Mom and Dad will pick up on that easily." She tried to stop any more tears from falling, turning away from the mirror to pack more. "And you saw my nightmare! You saw what I might turn into if I go there." Her hands were shaking. "I'm _not_ going to a psych ward, and I'm _not_ going to lose you guys. This is my only chance to make sure those things don't happen."

Riley removed her toothbrush and toothpaste from the cabinet, her hand slowly coming to rest on the bottle of medication. Her fingers curled around it and, letting out a frustrated yell, she threw it across the room so that it hit her bedpost. The cap popped off and several of the pills spilled onto the floor.

"Dang," Anger said, moving away from the Intercom a bit. "She's really serious about this."

"I don't blame her," Sadness pointed out.

"You should just tell'em," Anger said, trying to get her to reconsider. "Just tell'em how you feel and make them listen to you!"

"My mind's made up." Riley made it clear that not even the emotions could change her mind.

For a moment, Riley looked back and felt doubt creeping into her heart again. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to leave her home behind?

She shook her head out of those thoughts. The voices of her emotions wouldn't leave, seeing as they were just as real as she was, nor did she want them to leave. But if this continued, she knew that she'd just be diagnosed as having her 'disorder' getting worse, with the pills being ineffective, and would likely have to go to a mental health hospital for 'treatment'. She'd become the shell of her former self she had seen in her nightmare.

* * *

 **Riley Regrets Her Decision:**

"See? I told you," Anger scolded. "Instead of just running away, you should have just waited and told those—"

"Anger!" Joy scolded. With a desperate look, she pointed at the screen.

Anger turned to look at the screen, as did everyone else, and stopped. They could see that tears were causing Riley's vision to become blurry, and a sob tore out of her throat as she sat down on the bench and sobbed, burying her face in her hands.

Anger's eyes widened, and everyone backed away a bit from the Intercom.

"Hey Riley, I'm sorry…"

But Riley gave no acknowledgement.

Joy sighed, turning to the other emotions, who looked at her with equally regretful expressions. "… I'll try talking to her, okay?"

The others murmured in agreement, stepping away and looking sadly amongst themselves. They stepped more toward the control panel, but their movements were uncertain. As her emotions, they were supposed to protect Riley and guide her into action. But how could they, now, when it was their influence that was causing this whole mess in the first place? How could they guide her to deal with them?

But they knew that if anyone could comfort Riley, Joy could.

Joy stepped closer to the Intercom. For several tense moments, all that could be heard was Riley's crying, and Joy could tell from the screen that Riley was trembling through her sobs.

"Riley?" Joy asked quietly, as gently as she could, "can you hear me?"

Riley sniffled, trying to wipe tears from her eyes. "Y-Yeah." Her voice was so quiet and broken that Joy felt a pang in her heart.

"Oh, Riley," Joy said soothingly. "It… it'll be okay."

"How do you know?" Riley said, glancing upward with an accusatory tone. "I can't go back, and I have no idea where to go…" Joy could see the tears falling from Riley's face onto her jacket as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"I just… I-I just…"

"Just what?"

Riley hung her head low. "… I just wanna go back to how things were before…"

"You mean before you met us?" Sadness asked, feeling a bit guilty but understanding at the same time.

"No, no," Riley insisted, shaking her head in response. "I mean before everyone started to see me as being crazy."

* * *

 **Riley Confesses:**

Her father looked at her very seriously. "Why'd you run away, Riley?"

"I don't wanna tell you…"

"Riley," her mother said gently, in a tone that caused Riley to flinch thanks to the memory of her nightmare. " _Please_ tell us. We just want to help you."

Riley looked away. She sniffled, trying not to cry again. She was hesitant to answer, but after still being able to sense her parents looking at her, she knew she had to say something. "I didn't want you to send me to a stupid psych ward…"

Her parents' expressions softened.

"Oh honey," her mother said, hugging her tightly. "We were _never_ going to send you away. We got those pills to help, but we _never_ were going to send you to a mental hospital."

"Those are only for the _really_ crazy people," her father said.

Mrs. Andersen shot a quick glare at her husband that clearly said ' _That will cause Riley to think we're calling her crazy!_ ' The stricken look on Riley's face showed that was exactly how she had taken it.

Mr. Andersen looked sheepish and quickly tried to redeem himself. "We don't think you're crazy, Riley. You may be struggling, but we'll help you get through this." He smiled a little. "Haven't we always?"

Riley let out a shaky, choked breath. "But they aren't gonna go away," Riley whispered. She started to cry. "No matter how many pills or treatments you give me, they'll still be there." She looked up at her parents, her eyes teary. "They're as real as you are."

* * *

And finally, I figured I'd save this one for last this chapter:

 **The Asylum Nightmare:**

At first, Riley hadn't been able to see anything. She didn't feel… afraid, really, just curious. Sooner or later something had to show up.

Until the darkness began to clear slightly in front of her, like a mist or dense fog, and she saw something that caused her to cry out. Or rather, someone.

It was _her_. And yet it wasn't her. For a moment, Riley was frozen, unable to move, as she took in the appearance of her dream counterpart. The dream-Riley wore the same rainbow-striped shirt that Riley herself had worn earlier that day, but this Riley was older, probably around 15. Much less cheerful and more distant.

"Riley," an unfamiliar male voice said slowly, as if talking to a small child. "We need you to talk to us—"

"I'm not crazy," Dream-Riley interrupted, turning away. "I'm not crazy, I'm not…" She tightened her arms around herself, looking away. "The Emotions are there…"

The darkened room brightened a little more, and Riley stumbled backward in shock. Where the dim light had concealed the walls now illuminated them enough to show what was hanging on them. Pictures. Drawings of the Emotions. And while Riley and Joy recognized some as the ones she had drawn in her waking life, others were different and downright terrifying.

The terrifying ones, of course, stuck out most to Riley. Some showed the emotions in her head, or transparent around her, telling her to do terrible things to others. And many just shown Riley herself doing those things—Riley even noticed that she was holding a knife in one of the pictures. And while some of them were on the square pieces of paper she normally did her drawings on, others seemed circular, almost spherical, and more detailed. _Too_ detailed, like a snapshot of her life.

Riley felt her throat tighten as she got a closer look at the circular pictures. They seemed to shimmer, to have a slight reflective look to them. And as she kept staring, she saw them turn different colors. Mostly purple.

Riley scrambled away from the wall as fast as she could, her horrified eyes staring up at the depictions, slowly turning her gaze upward to see them go up toward the ceiling. Some of which, the circular, detailed ones, were now taking on single colors and starting to move. "T-Those aren't pictures…" she stammered, barely able to breathe. "T-They're…"

" _Memories_ ," Joy whispered at the same time.

The lights in Headquarters flickered, some of the area darkening before lighting up again, and other areas remaining dark. Riley was clearly in distress.

Joy felt a chill go down her spine. Normally only one was on dream-duty while the others slept, and the others were filled in on the dream the next day. But this dream was disturbing Riley so much—and Joy, for that matter—that it snapped Joy to full attention, knowing she couldn't just watch this play out. Staring at the monitor in shock, she shook herself out of her trance and raced up the stairwell to the rooms of the other Emotions. She couldn't just let them sleep, not through this one. They had to see this _now_. She turned and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Guys!" She burst into each of their rooms, jolting them awake. "Wake up! It's Riley! She's having a nightmare and she's in trouble!"

The others were quickly roused from their sleep, though Disgust and Anger looked more sleepy than alert.

"She's had nightmares before," Disgust said, rubbing her eyes, feeling for a moment that, as bad as nightmares were, this wasn't much new. But concern settled on her face, as with all of them, when noticing Joy's expression upon coming out into the hall, certain now that this wasn't just any nightmare.

Joy didn't just look concerned or worried. Joy looked _scared_. _Terrified_ , really. And in turn, that scared the others, which of course made Fear nearly catatonic. Joy was almost _never_ scared, so rarely that they could count the times on one hand.

"Yeah, but this one's about _us_!"

Before the words had even finished leaving Joy's mouth, Fear zoomed out of his room like a rocket in overdrive, getting to the main control room before everyone else. The others quickly followed, as awake now as if it were daylight. The lighting in Headquarters was rapidly malfunctioning, some of it shorting out and not lighting up again. Only a flickering bulb or two was more-or-less consistently lit.

This was _not_ good.

"Your emotions aren't going to hurt you, Riley," the voice said to the trembling Dream-Riley. "It's okay."

The five froze to the spot at hearing those words, hearing a sharp intake of breath from Riley. The fact that Dream-Riley flinched and moved closer to the wall didn't help.

"No," Joy whispered. The whisper was barely audible. The sketchy drawings had hinted at it, but it was another thing to hear it spoken aloud. This older Riley was… _afraid_ of them? What had happened, in this dreamworld? What had occurred to have Riley go from the happy-go-lucky child they knew and loved to _this_?

They heard Riley voice that same shock. "W-Why would I be afraid of them? What did they do?" She had a bad feeling that she was going to find out soon, the pictures, the memories surrounding them filling her with dread. She knew the emotions terrified her dream-self, but why? What had they done?

"Tell us, Riley," the voice said. "Tell us more about the Emotions. Carefully this time. We don't want another incident."

"That was Anger's doing," Dream-Riley said, her voice so spiteful that it caught Riley and her emotions off-guard.

"Riley," the tone was a bit more firm. "Focus. What were they like?"

"What _are_ they like," Dream-Riley insisted. Her gaze was firm, a fire that hadn't been present the moment before.

"They haven't left," they heard another voice say. Likely another psychiatrist.

There was a pause. "Try to focus on what they were like before."

The fire vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Dream-Riley rocked back and forth as the look in her eyes became distant. The monotone laced with desperation in her voice caused Riley to step back. "The Emotions say they're there to help and guide…" She swallowed, her eyes darting back and forth. "But they said things, t-they snapped poor little Riley's mind…"

Riley felt cold. She was vaguely aware of her body trembling.

"Why did you refer to yourself in the third-person just now?" the voice inquired gently.

"She's trying to distance herself," the second voice said, sounding a bit irritated. "Let her speak."

The expression on Dream-Riley's face was equally questioning in response, as if uncertain at first of how to reply. She seemed to be completely unaware of her younger self watching nearby, though Riley herself was too horrified to make a sound. "Little Riley couldn't understand before. When her parents learned, it was too late for her…"

"You mean your younger self?"

She nodded, laughing, but there was no humor in her laughter. She took down one of the pictures from the wall, her hands shaking, as Riley got a better view of it. It was the Emotions in twisted and distorted forms, surrounding a terrified Riley as they controlled her like a puppet on strings and tried to influence her to do things. Them seeing through her sight was depicted as needle-like constructs digging from inside her head to the back of her eyeballs. Even Joy bore a malevolent smile on her face.

Riley felt like she was going to be sick.

"W-We're not like that," Sadness stammered.

"That's not what Dream-Riley thinks," Disgust said in a hushed tone.

Dream-Riley then stood, legs shaking as she started to pace around. "Little Riley trusted the Emotions," she went on. The fingers of her left hand lightly gripped her right arm as if for comfort. "They were good for a while. She grew to love them. She loved them like family.

"But at night… at night they started to appear to her, she heard them louder. They turned dangerous. They tried to t-talk her into doing things, and she couldn't control it. They saw through her eyes and directed her." A short, shaky laugh escaped her, her eyes wide. "Little Riley attacked people, she hurt them, they called her a freak and a psycho… It was their fault, n-not hers…"

Riley tried to turn around and run, only to crash into something a few steps away. Was it a wall? A barrier? She wasn't sure, it was as dark as everything else aside from the other now-illuminated walls. That is, until that wall lit up as well. More pictures, mostly unnerving ones. Unless she wanted to stare at the pictures and her own distorted reflection, there was nothing she could do but turn and watch. Nothing to do but observe her dream self, her older self. She prayed it wouldn't be her future self.

And if this was her future self, Dream-Riley wasn't describing what was happening for her right now. For her it was the past, but it was closer to Riley's present.

"It's just a dream," Riley repeated to herself desperately as a mantra. "It's just a dream, it's just a dream…" But each time she said the phrase, she sounded more and more uncertain. Was this only a dream, or was it a vision of things to come later in her life? And would it start? A year from now? A few months? Weeks? _Days_?

The five Emotions watched in her head with widened eyes. Fear was shaking like a leaf as he hid behind Joy.

"T-This is _our_ fault," Fear gasped. "This is _all our fault…_ "

This was because of them. It was all happening because they had decided to try to talk to her. No doubt Riley would need help from this.

Joy felt absolutely devastated. It had been her who had the idea of talking to Riley and becoming her friends. And now this was happening. They should have just gotten that Intercom fixed right away.

"Oh Riley," Joy said with tears in her eyes, "what have we done?"

"They're watching now, you know," Dream-Riley said, opening her eyes wider. "They're watching through my eyes." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Can't see anything now, can you, guys? Huh?" She laughed.

"Riley, calm down—" they heard the psychiatrist say.

"NO!"

Riley backed against the wall, breathing heavily, never having felt more terrified as her older self laughed.

"Turn if off!" Fear screamed, his hands digging into Joy's shoulders as he looked wildly at the mechanism where memories were projected from, starting to run toward it. "Turn it off, _turn it off_!"

"What good will that do?!" Anger shouted, glaring at Fear and grabbing him. "She'll still be _having_ the dream, you know!"

"We have to help her somehow!" Sadness pointed out.

"How?" Disgust asked.

Disgust's question hung in the air, the others at just as much of a loss. As much as Fear wanted to turn it off, to ignore what he was seeing, he knew that he had to watch. They all did. To comfort Riley once she woke up. How would her parents be able to properly comfort her from _this_?

"RILEY!" Joy shouted desperately. "WAKE UP!" But she had a feeling that no matter how much she shouted, it wouldn't do anything to help—Dream Productions had to let the whole dream play out as it was made. The only way Riley would wake up was when it was over.

Riley was shaking, closing her eyes as the laughter of Dream-Riley echoed in her ears. She realized, to her horror, that she started to hear voices of her own, those of her emotions. But these weren't the friendly conversations she had with her in her making life; what they spoke and how they sounded became terrifying.

"Hey Riley," Dream-Joy said in a darkly sing-song tone, "come on, am I really all _that_ scary? Haha, come on, have _fun_ with it! Doesn't it bring you _joy_ to watch what you're gonna become?"

"Get rid of them!" Dream-Anger shouted. "The psychiatrists are trying to bring you down, destroy them!"

"We're always gonna be here," whispered Dream-Fear. "You're never gonna get rid of us. We'll be here forever and ever and ever…"

Riley knew that she couldn't take much more of this or she'd go insane herself.

As if she didn't think things could get any worse, the five emotions appeared in front of her in the air, looking just as distorted as they did in the pictures. They started to circle around Riley.

" _We've been watching you, Riley,_ " they all said in unison. " _Come play with us, Riley. Forever and ever and ever…_ "

"Wake _up_ , Riley!" she shouted to herself, pounding her fists against the sides of her head, trying to drown out the voices. "Please! Wake up, _wake up_ , _WAKE UP!_ "

The screen that showed Riley's dream abruptly shut off, and Riley's eyes snapped open as she finally escaped from the nightmare. The emotions noticed her blurred vision and the tears that were present on her pillow. She had been crying in her sleep. She started to shake as she desperately wrapped her arms around herself, crying in between choked breaths and gasps, trying to recover from the terrifying dream.

"Riley?"

They noticed Riley flinch, then she let out a shaky breath. It was Joy who had spoken, not Dream-Joy, but the images of the dream still replayed in her thoughts. "G-G-Guys?"

The emotions started talking all at once.

"We saw your nightmare!"

"That was awful!"

"Gonna storm down to Dream Productions and—"

"Everyone, quiet!" Joy held up her hand to stop them as she heard Riley crying again. "Not all at once." Her voice was more guilt-ridden than the others had thought was possible for her. "She's heard enough voices."

* * *

As a note—a good chunk of those above excerpts will either have elements hinted at or have parts officially from them, just in a different context. So if you like, consider them ambiguous teasers. Also, that part in the nightmare where the emotions say "Come play with us Riley. Forever and ever and ever..."? That was a shout-out to the creepy twins in The Shining. So yeah, Intercom was gonna get pretty horror-based horrific in the old days. How much of those proto-elements remain, and what changes were made to later parts, I shall not spoil. ;)

And because I feel a bit guilty not giving a chapter itself to you guys, I'll give you a teaser that I have written that m's not pulled from Intercom's proto-stages—it's not for the next imediate chapter, but a couple chapters later. ;) So here we go!

* * *

 _"C-Come on, Riley," Joy whispered, holding the girl's hand. "Minnesota? Remember Minnesota?"_

 _Riley blinked and sniffled, tugging her hand away and staring at Joy in a fearful incomprehension as she wiped tears away with her sleeve. "Wha...What's Minnesota?"_

 _"The place where you used to live..." Joy felt her chest tighten, forcing out a smile as she pleaded with her eyes to have Riley remember anything about her life. "Do you remember the lake where you used to skate and play hockey with Mom and Dad? Or when Meg would come over?"_

 _Riley shook her head, looking as lost as ever and clutching to the soul memory like it was her only friend. Even the words "Mom" and "Dad" seemed to hold no meaning for her._

 _'_ Please tell me I'm having a nightmare _', Joy thought before desperately trying again. "San Francisco?"_

 _"What's that?"_

 _Joy's expression faltered, attempting to remain perky becoming harder. If Riley didn't remember her own family here... "Okay, come on, h-hockey! You remember hockey, right?"_

 _Riley shook her head._

 _Joy searched for something more recent. "Ann? Jordan?"_

 _Nothing._

 _Joy sat next to her. If a Human World memory wouldn't come to her here, maybe a Mind World memory would. Her eyes darting for a moment, her expression lit up as she pointed to the memory that Riley clutched to her chest. "Remember when you did impressions of us? And created Possibility Island?"_

 _Riley sighed, looking down and wrapping her coat around herself. She gazed at the orb, but it was as if she wasn't really focusing on it. Her grow then furrowed, wracking her brain to try to come up with any recollection. But no matter how much she searched her mind, it didn't seem she could recall much of anything that would help her. At least not as far as Joy could see in her eyes._

 _The young human was broken out of her attempts at thought by feeling a warm hand wrap around hers. She looked up, staring into Joy's eyes, her gaze worried. Joy knew that no matter what had happened, they could get things back to normal. They had to. Everything may have been screwed up as far as she could see, but she had to have hope that she could fix this. No matter where they'd have to go._

 _"We have to get you out of here."_

* * *

Context? Not telling. Situation? Not spoiling. Is it a dream? Are the emotions Outside? Is it actually happening or is it a hallucinatory nightmare? No comment.I did have a few other parts I could have put here as a preview, but all of them were way too spoilery. and couldn't have been put there without it being obvious what was happening. Like I said, this won't happen directly next chapter, and in all likelihood I'll have more added in it, but I figured I'd keep the preview as it is now and leave out the part where it spells out where they are and what the situation is. ;)

So there ya go. Happy first anniversary to Intercom, thank you all SO much for sticking with the story thus far, and I hope to have the full next chapter up sometime soon! So I figured that if I couldn't give you a chapter today, I could give you some bonuses as a thank-you. :) See ya next chapter!


	25. Layers of Truth

**EDIT: Added a bit where Joy goes through Abstract Thought, can't believe I forgot about that...**

 **A/N: Hello, guys! I'm BAACCCKK! (I know, the Independence Day reference would have been more fitting if I updated a month ago) I know, I know it's been a while since I've updated, a lot longer than I initially planned. Whoops. ^^; First was sick, then went on vacation, then was doing other things, then got into Undertale more and rekindled my love for Phantom of the Opera (as those of you who noticed my Phantom-of-the-Opera-inspired Undertale AU fic know), etc. o yeah, lot of stuff, but now I'm finally, _finally_ back to update this (really got to update the other IO fics too, come to think of it) and to be perfectly honest, when I was looking over last chapter to reorient myself to where we are in _Intercom_ and where we're going, I found myself getting some of my motivation back for this story and the parts that are to come. So thanks so much for being patient—and yeah, I know I said a few days ago I'd try to update by Saturday and technically I'm a couple hours off my time, but it's still Saturday somewhere, so yeah. XD**

 **Also, seeing as I read the TV Tropes pages (so everyone who's added to those, you guys are awesome!) I know that there was a bit of questioning on how I stated previously that the Writing By the Seat Of Your Pants trope (i.e. "making stuff up as you go") applied at first, but then the full plot got going, though given how many of the Wild Mass Guessings and the like turned out to be true, there was some questioning on if I really was or not. And I honestly meant to mention this in the Interlude chapter, but I forgot to. So I will now:**

 **As far as "the plot being fully formulated", I initially had said that quite a few chapters ago. And in fact, those basic plot structures that I had in mind are still present. But there has been a lot of "writing as I go along" admittedly, and I have to say that you guys have actually helped _Intercom_ be what it is. Your guys' comments (not just on the trope pages, but on the reviews as well) have inspired a few things, and there's also been points where I've been impressed at the level of speculation you guys have been able to come up with. **

**So, have I had the whole plot planned out, or am I making it all up as I go, which is it? Laying all my cards on the table, I'd say a mix of both, sometimes the "as I go" stuff spring up on-the-spot. For instance, the whole thing with Isolation Island? I got the idea for that entire subplot _while I was in the middle of writing the chapter_ where it first appears. It's funny how ideas can come up.**

 **Also, Eric, to answer your question from your chapter 23 review regarding Ann and Jordan knowing each other, the way I see it things go like this. Ann and Jordan were friends several years prior, then they fell out of touch, Ann got involved with Tracy and her group, and Riley brought them back together, :) And Randomness Girl, Anger saying "Hot Belgian waffles" having you think of Gravity Falls is completely intentional. ;)**

 **Enough of my long note—enjoy this long-overdue chapter that I made sure to be long to make up for the 2-4 month wait time!**

* * *

Joy felt a violent shudder go down her spine, though she wasn't sure if it was all from her own unease or the rumble caused by whatever Island of Personality was falling. Mentally calculating what was the best way to go, and without a map to guide her, Joy threw caution to the wind and raced through the lanes of memories, both keeping an eye out for more cores and trying to get a sight of which Island was collapsing. Because that was definitely a more catastrophic sounding rumble than just growing unsteady.

"Okay," Joy tried to tell herself as she ran. "Okay, okay, come on, Joy, be positive. Maybe it's not so bad, maybe it's Isolation Island that's falling. Yeah, that's gotta be—"

Another turn down the lanes to face the chasm of the Memory Dump where the Personality Islands overhung, the towering forms of Science and the defunct form of Goofball meeting her gaze on either side. She slowly craned her gaze toward the right to see the state of any of the others. Friendship looked battered but still standing, Tragic Vampire Romance was okay...

But Joy's expression fell almost instantly as she could see the remains of one of the other Islands falling. Though the place where it had been was covered up by some of the other Islands, her expression contorted into one of horror when she saw the shape that was rapidly descending below. It wasn't Isolation.

Family Island was falling into the Memory Dump as if it were nothing more than blocks a child had knocked over.

"NO!" Joy practically scrambled to the cliff, skidding to a halt to prevent herself from tumbling downward as she watched what she was powerless to stop. Of course, she knew that shouting would do nothing, and her sheer disbelief and horror at what had occurred wouldn't cause the Island to spring back up no matter how much she willed it. If Riley were physically in the Mind World, with what she could do, maybe _she_ could fix it...

But by the state of things, it would seem that Riley wouldn't exactly be in the mood for fixing anything like that. Riley was awake and Outside, and Joy wasn't Riley no matter how much she tried to emulate that in the past. All the emotion could do was watch helplessly as the powered-down Island slowly descended into the cavernous hole that brought up unpleasant memories even for Joy. And now it had a further negative thought to add to the list.

Breaking herself out of her shock, she gave a quick glance around to see if she could pinpoint her location. The Islands with their core memories still intact appeared perfectly fine, and she could see that Friendship one of the closest, dark as it was, looked battered up but not fallen. Not collapsed into the Memory Dump like Family had done...

Joy tried not to think about what had corresponded Outside to result in Family Island's collapse and Friendship's damage, instead trying to focus her attention on what was going on and where she was. Her gaze flickered toward Headquarters, shining far above like a beacon of hope in these dark circumstances. Home seemed even farther away now than it had last year...

Turning her gaze away from her home, Joy looked from the Islands to Long Term, getting her bearings. So if she was near Science and Goofball... that meant she was close to Imagination Land. At least, reasonably speaking.

"Maybe there's something in Imagination Land that can help!" Joy exclaimed, daring to let her mood brighten in a glimmer of hope. "Maybe Riley's imagined something recently that could help with finding the core memories!"

The emotion then moved a few steps over, adopting her more maternal voice. "But Joy," she said as she straightened her posture up, "I don't think Riley will have imagined a Core Memory Locator."

"Well if not, the Train of Thought runs through there!" Joy clapped her hands together, the many shelves of orbs no longer seeming to intimidate her as her pep talk brought some spring back to her step. "And if I can convince the conductor to do a few detours, we can look for the core memories from the air!"

"And see if there's a telescope from Imagination Land to help?"

"Exactly, then I can fix everything and Riley will be on the road to recovery!"

"Sounds brilliant, Joy, I'm so proud of you for not giving up!"

"Thanks, Mo..."

Joy trailed off on the last word, the momentum from her enthusiasm lessened somewhat. In a way it felt good to have these talks of encouragement, even if it really was with just herself and she'd never really have a mom to be proud of her ideas like Riley had with Mrs. Andersen...

The emotions glow dimmed slightly, her speedy walk through the lanes of memories breaking into a run. If the loss of Family Island was any indication, right now Riley appeared to be losing the very kind of parental relationship that Joy secretly had. And she wasn't about to let Riley down again.

With new resolve, Joy swiftly turned back through Long Term's shelves, swiveling her head around with every turn to look for four particularly bright memories or one dangerously gray one. No matter what, she _had_ to find those core memories. She had screwed up, and it was up to her to help Riley in whatever way she could. Even if it meant going through Long Term Memory for who knew how long to find a handful of memories in a sea of multicolored hundreds of thousands.

After all, she was Joy, the leader, the headstrong one. If anyone could find those memories, she could. She had to, at this point—it wasn't like she could rely on anyone else to help now, anyway.

Shaking her head as if to banish the unpleasant image from her own thoughts, Joy raced through the maze of Long Term, looking desperately for any sign of out of place memories or Mind Workers that could help her out. She wasn't sure how far away Imagination Land was from here, but whatever help she could get, she'd take. Riley might have been resisting help from Outside, but Inside was a whole different matter entirely.

"Hello? Anyone here?! I need help finding some bright core memories that _really_ need to go back up!"

No reply.

"Or a really bad dark memory that's draining color from the other ones!" she added, calling louder but a bit more hesitant on her words.

She waited a few more seconds, head tilted like a rabbit primed for any curious sounds. She heard nothing except her own heartbeat.

Like it or not, she had to keep going. Riley couldn't get back to normal—at least, their new definition of "normal" given the intercom's status—unless she had help. And in order to get help in here to lift the burden of feeling on her own, she'd need to be asleep. But until then, however long that was, Joy couldn't have her friends go from place to place to search for the missing core memories. Nor could she call the Train of Thought down here to make for easier travel. At least not yet.

But at least Joy had the idea of a destination to go on that could hopefully make this search a little easier. Assuming she didn't find all the memories along the way.

And if she didn't, at least Imagination Land could be an easier place to find her when Riley got there.

As Joy continued running, another thought then dawned on her. Abstract Thought. In all likelihood if there wasn't a way for hear to quickly get to Imagination Land from where she was, she might have to go through that place if it was necessary.

Great.

* * *

As two hours passed Outside, Riley's room stayed relatively silent, both inside and outside her head. No pencil scribblings of the test answers read out to Riley again, only calling up the memories one by one as they were needed. And when she wasn't sure, a few minutes of looking through her notes would cause another orb to roll onto the shelves to hold onto that knowledge with varying degrees of success.

In Headquarters, Disgust, Anger, and Fear stayed near the console, while Sadness was propped near the couch, several of the mind manuals at her side. When the emotions did speak, they practically tiptoed over their words, as if the lack of Joy and the presence of Gloom on the console was sapping all the energy out of Headquarters. Even Riley's movements Outside appeared lethargic and sluggish, as if her state of mind was affecting her physical well-being too. Not wanting to bother Riley too much, the emotions tried to stay silent, but that became harder to do as they looked uneasily at where the recall tube would descend from the ceiling, anxiously waiting for a core memory from Joy. But no more came up.

Fear was wringing his hands together so tightly it was almost as if his fingers would break off. "Shouldn't she have at least found _one_ more by now?"

"Long Term's huge," Sadness pointed out as she flipped through the books. "And I'm not there to help her not get lost this time."

That did nothing to ease Fear's panic. "Well what if something went wrong and Joy hasn't brought anything back because—"

" _Shhhh!_ " Riley hushed from outside.

The emotions all stopped at Riley breaking the silence, Headquarters so quiet that if even a bug had found its way in there they probably could have heard it. After several more seconds in which the only thing that could be heard was Riley's pencil, Anger crossed his arms and glared at the purple emotion.

"Sorry," Fear whispered, moving closer to the other emotions and lowering his voice further. "—because something happened to her out there?" he finished quietly from his previous statement.

"Then we'll go and find her once Riley goes to sleep," Anger hissed. "Joy's Ms. Positive, she can take care of herself. She's the least likely of us to give up searching."

Fear was about to say something in protest, but paused before closing his mouth. "I guess you have a point."

"And it's not like there's anything out there that can hurt her." Anger went on with an exasperated cross of his arms.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Sadness mumbled, glancing over toward the gray sky outside Headquarters.

Fear whipped his head over toward Sadness at that, concern rising in his expression. "What do you mean by that?! I thought all the scary stuff was kept in the Subconscious..."

"Given how things are out there, I wouldn't be surprised if there were new things out there, genius," Disgust said. "Remember Imagination Land and the Memory Dump Riley imagined? And need I remind you that was on Riley's mostly _good_ Mind World visit."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better _how—?!_ "

The emotions at the console then experienced the sensation of Riley placing her hands on her ears, even though that wouldn't exactly help her situation. " _Shh!_ "

"... Sorry," Fear murmured timidly.

"Ugh... no, i-it's okay..." Feeling her eyes begin to droop, Riley raised a hand to rub them in an effort to keep herself awake, eventually closing her book. Clearly she wasn't going to be getting any more studying done for tonight, and in any case she felt like she'd rather be in the Mind World right now rather than the outside world. "I've gotten all the studying I can do tonight anyway."

"You, uh..." Disgust seemed almost hesitant to speak directly to the girl they tried to care for. "You think you're ready, Riley?"

"I hope so," Riley mumbled, shoving her book away from her. "Pretty sure I'll pass, at least."

Fear's shoulders slumped in relaxation as he looked from the Mind's Eye screen to the new memories on the shelf. "Whew, that's a relief! Somewhat." He lowered his voice on the last word.

"I heard that," Riley muttered, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes.

Fear flinched, having forgotten just how much Riley could hear them as the girl put away her schoolwork and headed to her closet. "Sorry. We should, uh, probably call up the Train so some of us can meet you down at—"

"You don't have to," Riley said quickly as she picked out her pajamas to wear for the night. "I'll just meet you guys at Headquarters."

"How—"

"Flying and teleporting, remember?" Anger snapped, nudging Fear on the arm.

"Oh, right..." Though Riley couldn't see him, she could hear the more-nervous-than-usual edge in Fear's voice at the prospect of her traveling from Dream Production's to Headquarters on her own, with the Memory Dump looming like an open mouth between the two destinations.

Riley tried to ignore any of the potential problems that could arise with that, trying instead to keep the focus on that she was going back to the Mind World in the first place. And hopefully be able to set right what she had screwed up. Yet another reason to go through and read the manuals.

She went over to the bathroom, making sure both to be alert for her parents attempting to come upstairs and getting changed without glancing over at the mirror. She didn't need any more interaction or attention being called to awkward situations right now. Not with all the stress, core memory loss, and anxiety she was going through.

Luckily for her, she didn't hear her parents come up by the time she went out of the bathroom, and she peeked her head down the stairs. She could hear her parents talking down in the kitchen, but couldn't quite make out the words. Or perhaps she was partially blocking them out.

Riley hurried back over to her room, shutting the door quietly behind her and heading to bed as she buried herself under her covers. If she pretended to be asleep, then more likely than not she would legitimately be asleep if her parents came up to try to wish her goodnight. Or give her another talk.

After a few moments, Riley let her eyes slowly close. No matter what the little voices inside her head might think, she didn't need her family. What she needed was sleep.

"I'll meet you guys once I can lucid dream again."

Inside her head, the emotions watched the screen of the Mind's Eye vanish, and the sky outside Headquarters darkened to blue. The cloudy shade of the sky due to loss of the core memories was still somewhat present, but with the Mind World's night sky and speckles of stars it didn't seem quite as threatening.

Of course, as the group headed away from the console to look out the windows of Headquarters, that didn't change that about half of the places where the Personality Islands would be alight like Las Vegas were completely dark without the cores, especially with Family Island now completely gone. The fact that the anchoring Island in the center of it all was no longer there seemed almost as if it were a new Memory Dump on its own, or the mouth of a giant monster ready to leap up and swallow anything that tried to cross it.

Pressing the button on the floor to send the memories down to Long Term, Disgust glanced over toward the alcove where the broken intercom was before joining her fellow emotions. "... We really screwed up, didn't we?"

The other emotions murmured their agreement as the sky darkened to evening with stars dotting it. Seeing as it would probably take a short while for Riley to settle into a deep enough lucid dreaming state, the emotions took the opportunity to chat amongst themselves.

Disgust then turned to the tallest of the remaining emotions. "Alright Fear, when Riley gets here, if she starts talking about her little crazy-pill idea, we need _you_ to talk her out of it!"

Fear stiffened a little at being brought to the center of attention, though he knew Disgust was right. "I agree, I know it's bad, but how am I supposed to help?! She doesn't seem to want to listen to anyone—"

"Wrong there, pinhead," Anger interrupted, storming over to Fear and roughly turning the purple emotion to face the Islands of Personality. "What do ya see out there?"

Fear gulped, feeling as if he were on a deadly quiz show and would get hit if he answered wrong. "Well, Family Island's gone, Friendship's shaken up—"

"Exactly," Anger goaded. "Now what's the _one other Island_ out there that deals with people she interacts with?"

"Possibility—"

"That's the point, nitwit!" Anger said sharply, noticing the Mind World's sky begin to become the color of transitioning dawn, indicating that Riley was now present in the Mind World. "She won't listen to her family, or her friends, but she'll listen to us. Probably namely you because you're always making sure she won't die, so do your Fear thing and talk her out of it!"

Just as Fear was about to respond, there was a brief shimmer of light right near the core memory holder, and soon Riley stood in Headquarters, wearing the same jeans and rainbow-striped shirt that she had worn upon first realizing the extent of her abilities in Imagination Land. Her shoulders slumped, head tilted downward and staring at the ground, the girl looking worn out both physically and mentally. The emotions noticed her sigh before she finally turned around, moving past the core memory holder to face them. The mix of irritation and fear on her face only magnified the desperate concern from the residents of Headquarters. Especially a certain purple emotion.

"Guys, I've told you, I'm—"

"Riley, please don't do what you were thinking of doing!" Fear begged, practically sprinting to the startled human and gripping her hands tightly. His eyes appeared so large from her perspective, wide with anxiety ad desperation, that if Riley didn't know any better, she would have thought the purple nerve's eyeballs were going to roll out of his head. "We don't wan't you getting hurt!"

Both the expression on Fear's face and the pleading in his voice seemed to make Riley pause, staring at him pensively. She didn't even look like she was going to try to push him away from her. While his initial first pleading sentence seemed to have caused a jolt of unease within Riley's consciousness, she seemed to be a bit more willing to listen as he continued.

 _Alright, Fear, I think you're getting through to her,_ Disgust thought with relief, giving a glance over to the shimmering core memory in question. Much to her relief, it wasn't flickering. _If anyone can get through to her on safety issues the way she is now, you can._

"M-Medications are really risky things," Fear babbled, searching for anything to say to convince their mentally-troubled kid out of another rash decision. He wasn't about to have a worse repeat of last year, "N-None of us are qualified, and you're just a kid, and you don't know the side-effects, and for goodness sake, _it's not safe Riley! You're our kid and **we don't want you to die!**_ "

All the other emotions stared blankly at Fear's half-rant half-plea, only their eyes steadily looking from Fear to Riley. The purple emotion wasn't moving from his position, staring up at the young human girl with the most piteous expression he could muster. And Riley's blue eyes stared into his purple ones, realization mixed with shock slowly appearing in her eyes as she processed exactly the weight that Fear's words carried. The consequences that could result if she tried to do something drastic like that.

"W-We know from experience that you act rashly when you're upset, and you don't think, and... and..." Fear let out a sigh, averting his gaze for a moment before releasing Riley's arms and looking up at her. "When we first met—I mean, when I first started actually talking to you," Fear corrected himself quickly, "I told you that your safety was my top priority, remember?"

Riley slowly nodded, staring at him as her blue eyes brimmed with uncertainty.

"And I don't think I've ever had to emphasize that as much as I have now," Fear went on, brushing his hands on his vest and still trying to look up at Riley. "We've always been there to protect you for the last 12 years of your life, even when it seemed like no one else was. I-I know we've made mistakes in the past," he continued, glancing briefly back at the others as well before turning his full desperate attention to Riley once more, "but everyone does, and we care about you more than anyone else in the—"

But Fear was suddenly cut off as arms wrapped around him, Riley kneeling down and hugging the emotion close to her chest. The purple emotion stiffened, caught off-gaurd at the sudden hug, but finding it a much better alternative from what he had feared would happen.

The other three emotions looked on cautiously, Sadness daring to hope Fear got through to Riley while Disgust wondered if their girl was going to pull an Anger and try to break the nerve in half. But any thoughts of that possibility of a hug turning into a choke-hold disappeared completely as they noticed that Riley was shaking slightly.

"I... I know you guys care about me..." Riley managed after a few moments, sounding almost as if she were holding back tears. "I just... I'm scared..."

"I-If you do decide to... get medicine," Fear trailed off a moment, "talk to your parents first. They're adults, they know more. But don't go that far... please... not alone... we love you..."

The frown on Riley's face deepened, the young girl clearly not fond of the idea of her parents trying to help after feeling betrayed by them. But at the same time, she knew Fear was right—if she _did_ try to make the voices stop through medication, she'd have to make sure it was the right course of action.

She just had to hope that Plan A could work—if she was lucky, and the emotions could be seen from the Outside, then it could be a way to solve her problems. If not...

As time passed, Riley tried to force herself to forget about her Outside problems. She was here in the Mind World, with her emotions who had been there for her even when she didn't know they were. For the time being, she didn't have to worry so much about threats from Outside. She could just enjoy her Mind World life.

"I can figure this out on my own," Riley said. "At least, without _them_." She gave Fear a little more of a squeezing hug, glancing at the other three emotions. For the first time in what felt like a while, Riley smiled, small as it was. "I'm not alone with you guys."

"Riley," Sadness said gently, withholding any sense of judgement in her voice and keeping her tone level and understanding. She went over to join the pair, putting a hand on the young girl's shoulder before hugging her as well in some attempt at solace, relieved when Riley seemed to relax a little more in their embrace. "It's okay. You'll be okay."

"Not yet."

The trio embraced in the hug looked up to see Anger staring at them. The brick-like emotion wasn't wearing his usual scowl, looking just as worried about Riley as the others. "Look, I hate to be blunt—"

"No you don't," Disgust muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Will you let me—?!" Anger started, his scowl returning and his eyes narrowed at the green emotion as his fists balled. But noticing the others looking at him warily, the brick tried to force himself to calm down. "Anyway, unless we get those cores back _and_ Joy," he went on as the trio broke off their comforting embrace, "Riley won't be okay. Scratch that, _especially_ Joy. Without her, there's no way Riley can feel happy in the Outside world unless Riley takes control of the console again."

"And I'm _never_ doing that again," Riley insisted, surprising herself by actually managing a laugh. True, it was nothing more than a weak "heh", but at least it was something. The moment she did so, a small smile manifested on her face.

Even Sadness appeared to brighten somewhat at this. "At least I think even being back here with us is helping you. I was starting to think that you might forget how to laugh."

"How could I forget to..."

Riley trailed off, glancing toward the the chasm deep below Headquarters. Right. The Memory Dump.

"Plus," Anger quickly pointed out, gesturing to the console behind them as his stern tone snapped Riley out of her thoughts, "console's still infested. First priority is you fixing the thing, so go over and fix the console!" Anger quickly gestured over to the center of Headquarters, the console looking rather isolated with its grayed hue and the lack of the Mind's Eye screen. "It's already caused us enough problems for the day!"

As Riley approached the construct, she couldn't help but feel intimidated by its appearance. The gray hue hung over it like a curtain of smog that wasn't about to do away. She stepped close to it and lifted a hand, hesitating a moment, as if fearing that the energy of Gloom would seep into her if she dared to touch it. Still, she couldn't think of any other way to get rid of the depressive force and give control of the console back to those who had actually been using it for 12 years.

As the emotions watched with bated breath, Riley closed her eyes and placed one hand firmly on the console, her eyes scrunched in concentration. A white glow broke through the haze, enveloping the console before both it and the gray hue began to fade. Within seconds, the console was back to the same beige color as normal when it wasn't directly in use.

"Alright, Riley!" Disgust called.

"What a relief, it worked!" Fear exclaimed.

"No more creepy Gloom stuff."

"Not exactly, Anger," Sadness said, looking at the red emotion who had spoken. Noticing the smiles fall from the faces of the other emotions, with Riley turning and looking just as concerned. "Gloom was pushed back from the console, that doesn't mean it's completely gone."

"So then let's _make_ it gone," Disgust insisted.

"When something like that comes up, it might not ever really go away," Sadness pointed out, looking surprisingly serious. "Sometimes that kind of thing deals with the Unconscious."

"Sadness... what exactly _is_ the Unconscious?"

The glasses-wearing emotion looked up at Riley's question before waving her hand over toward the couch, gesturing for Riley to sit down beside her. "You guys can sit down too, if you want," she said to the other emotions.

"Oh sure," Anger said sarcastically even as he sat at Sadness's other side, "I'm sure I'd love to hear Mommy Sadness read us a bedtime story about forces and places of horror that the most of the Mind World isn't supposed to even be bothered with!"

Despite the bitter tone in Anger's voice, Riley couldn't help but crack a smile, which in turn gave the emotions a little peace of mind. Any improvement in Riley's mood was helpful.

Clearing her throat as she positioned one of the manuals on her lap, Sadness flipped a few pages into the manual, noticing Riley's intense expression as she seemed to be scanning the pages. " _While the Conscious and Subconscious are primarily made up of machinery and workers that help to regulate and maintain the thought processes of the host,_ " Sadness went on slowly, " _the Unconscious is an area situated deep beneath the Memory Dump in the Mind World. It doesn't just contain the remnants of fragmented and forgotten memories, but also environments and forces that the host's mind has deemed threatening or uncomfortable, whether purely mental or having a physical effects—_ "

"But that sounds a bit like the Subconscious," Fear pointed out, sitting on the far right while Disgust was sandwiched between him and Riley. "That's where all the darkest fears go!"

Riley looked a bit uncertain at visiting the Subconscious as she really dwelled on it, but fought down any unease and looked at Sadness. Maybe facing her fears might help her get over the things that scared her about this place—or could just make them worse. "That does sound kinda similar..."

Sadness flipped to the next page and continued. " _This differs from the Subconscious in that while the Subconscious deals with physical threats that the host fears as troublemakers in the Mind World, the Unconscious is home to abstract concepts that are at the deepest roots of the psyche of a living—_ "

"In English?" Anger interrupted.

"The Unconscious has the aspects that originate from the mind and aren't caused by Fear's urging toward something from the outside," Sadness clarified. "Jangles, broccoli, the stairs to the basement... those are all Outside things that can be confronted. The Unconscious, it's... well, it's like Abstract Thought. It's not exactly something that can easily be controlled.

"Like disorders?" asked Disgust.

"I think so."

"Like Gloom?" Riley said slowly, glancing over at the console that was now devoid of the light of any input. Though said force was no longer controlling the console as it had been previously, Riley couldn't help but suppress a shudder at what more could have happened if Gloom was left unchecked for too long.

"Like Gloom," Sadness confirmed. "It has parts of yourself that the Mind World finds too strange or threatening to be part of your Conscious thought processes, or aspects that shape your various concepts and beliefs."

Riley frowned a bit, trying to metaphorically wrap her mind around this. "So it's like the Subconscious and Conscious deal with more specific things like a single plant, and the Unconscious is like a general description of a rainforest that forms into specific plants?"

"Yeah, something kinda like that in principle. So no one ever has to deal with them expect when they... slip through."

"S-Slip through?!" Fear squeaked, gripping Riley's hand so tightly that the young human winced in surprise at the force. "What do you mean 'slip through?'"

"There's ways to get to the Unconscious, but it isn't exactly easy since the Unconscious is supposed to be hidden," Sadness clarified as she closed the manual. "If things can get in, things can get out."

"But how?!" Fear demanded. "Let's just find out where these threats could come from and seal up the Unconscious for good! Then once we get the core memories back, we can help work everything out!"

"It's not as simple as opening and closing a door."

"Why not?" Disgust asked. "It's sections, seems pretty simple to me."

Sadness looked thoughtful, pushing her glasses up a bit before responding. "Because if the Unconscious doesn't have a connection to everything else, it could damage you and the Mind World."

Riley felt her throat tighten. "How?"

"Remember the stream that you saw through part of Imagination Land?"

"The one that went through Storybook Land?" Riley asked, already sounding uncomfortable at the possibility.

"Yeah," Sadness said. "It's where all your conscious thoughts are heard. And if you go far enough down..."

Riley swallowed, her skin becoming noticeably paler, and not just know that she knew about a way to access the Unconscious if done correctly, and so close to her imagined black-hole of a Memory Dump. If Gloom had come from there...

But there was another thought that flickered through Riley's consciousness as well. Her Plan B. If someone investigated the Stream of Consciousness when she was thinking about it, they'd know. And even though she had mentally told the mind workers of her internal world, there was one currently outside of Headquarters who she _hadn't_ told. And who likely wouldn't be too happy with Riley's wishes as much as she loved her time in the Mind World.

Joy.

* * *

The emotion in question had been wandering through Long Term Memory with little success, trying to keep some sort of sense of direction, but it was increasingly difficult. No memory orbs she was looking for, no mind workers wandering about.

And when she finally rounded one bend, she came across that familiar gray building, Imagination Land over beyond it.

"Okay," Joy said, taking a deep breath. "Good news, I'm almost at Imagination Land. Bad news is that I'm going have to go through Abstract Thought to get there."

She carefully approached the building as if it would attack her, stretching on her tip toes to open the door. The building was dark within, the only light the door on the other side. She glanced behind her, checking for any mind workers that might shut her in.

"Okay... just run through and you'll be fine... do it for Riley..."

Without looking back, Joy raced through the building without stopping, her form shining like a beacon in the dark. Despite her speed, with every second going by she feared that she would suddenly find the chamber alight and start to abstract. True, she knew how to deal with it, but it wasn't exactly something she was looking to experience again.

Luckily, Joy burst through the door at the opposite side of Abstract Thought, back into the relative safety of the Mind World's non-abstract workings. Joy let her shoulders slacken with relief, getting her breath back. She had made it.

But her relief at having made it through that Picasso-like nightmare of a place faded. And not just because she hadn't found a single one of the core memories she had been looking for on the way there.

The atmosphere of the Mind World's playground-like area as a whole no longer had the cheery brightness tint that illuminated the area, but instead was beset by a dim presence that reminded Joy too much of Gloom's effects from last year. Only this time, it was worse. The welcoming sign had collapsed to the ground,Trophy Town was bare of most of its prizes, and some of the fries in French Fry Forest were now too crispy to be eaten, far from the "perfect" view that Riley had of them previously. Joy quickened the pace of her run, her bare feet practically flying as she hoped she'd find even a little bit of cheer in Cloud Town. But even that hope was quickly extinguished. While some parts of it looked fine, a majority of the streets and buildings either were gray like oppressive storm clouds or appeared to have dissipated into a heavy fog.

"Joy! Joy!"

Joy was broken out of her thoughts at a voice she vaguely recognized, staring dumbfounded at the figure who was running toward her. In part because of the fog, it took her a few seconds to realize that it was actually Harry, Riley's imaginary boyfriend, seeing as he apparently had followed Disgust's advice and gotten a haircut, his hair much more like a round frame in contrast to the lion's mane he had sported at their last meeting. The boy stopped running just inches from Joy, bending over and panting heavily.

"Harry? I, uh, almost didn't recognize you..."

"Well, after what Disgust said, I—" The boy abruptly broke off of his speech, any semblance of a pleased demeanor gone to be replaced by the same sort of urgency Joy had been feeling through this whole ordeal. "Wait, no, that's not what's important here!" Harry cried, waving his hands and looking as freaked out as Joy was feeling. "You're from Headquarters so maybe you can help, things are going crazy here!"

Alarm bells instantly rang in Joy's head at that, as if the darkened state of that section of the Mind World wasn't already setting her on edge. "What's wro—"

" _Everything!_ " Harry interrupted, gripping Joy's hand and pulling her along through Cloud Town. "Things are breaking apart, some new guy keeps glitching out like he's suffering through an identity crisis, Cloud Town here's pretty much gone, some freaky memory sphere is here—"

Joy stopped so abruptly that Harry stumbled in his momentum, falling over in a heap before picking himself up again. "Wait, wait, what memory sphere?"

"Two of the Mind Workers just brought it over here a little bit ago," Harry explained. "It's uh, mainly gray, has swirls of blue and green and—"

"And it was pulling the color from other memories?" Joy pressed.

"Yeah! No one was sure what to do with it and they didn't think it was safe to return it to Headquarters—"

"Why didn't they just throw it in the Memory Dump?" Joy insisted as they raced by some fallen Houses of Cards, Joy nearly getting a paper cut on her right foot from one of the edges. "That's what I was going to do in the first place!"

"I think some people thought it could bring bad forgotten memories back or something given what it was doing, but I don't know!" Harry gave a slight shrug as they hurried toward Storybook Land. "It was pulling color from the others and was freaking everyone out, so it's here until further notice!" Despite being obviously unsettled by everything, he looked back at Joy with a smile. "Lucky you're here, you're basically Headquarters' leader! You'll know what to do!"

Joy and Harry both stopped in their running as they entered Storybook Land, passing a few upright sculptures of stories that Riley enjoyed reading, words literally dancing across the pages. But even these seemed to harbor a mannerism that signified less of a spark than normal, and some books that Joy didn't recognize almost seemed to have loving shadows flickering among them.

Joy desperately tried to think of something, anything, to lighten the mood. "So, uh, I see you followed Disgust's advice with the haircut."

"Yeah... you like it?"

"It's better than before, Joy admitted, trying to manage a smile. "How's the, uh, personality thing coming along?"

It it was at that that Harry slowed the pace of his run, causing Joy to give him a queer look. Clearly there was something else alongside the unsettling look of Imagination Land that was bothering him. "I've been trying a bunch of different things," the boy admitted sadly. "I tried being brave and daring leaping across the tops of the fries in French Fry Forest, but I nearly broke my leg. So I decided maybe being brave wasn't my thing after all."

"But you said you were willing to die for Riley before—"

"That was the old me," admitted Harry. "That was before I started learning about things, and before I saw what was going on with Riley. For the first time, Joy noticed that what confidence the imaginary boyfriend had seemed to have been lost. "Riley seems to be struggling with identity as it is, and she literally rules this place. How am I supposed to even figure out who I am with all this happening?"

As as much as it hurt to admit, Joy had no answer.

Passing a few of the towering books as Harry led Joy down a bend in the road, they turned to see a riverbank flowing through the area, the crystal clear water flowing in a winding path as if it were a stream in a fairy tale. And by the stream were Paula, Bobby, and a few other mind workers, and a small wheelbarrow holding Isolation Island's memory.

"Wait, Joy?" Bobby exclaimed. While both he and the rest of the mind workers looked both surprised and yet relieved to see Joy, he seemed like there was somethig he was avoiding telling her as well.

Joy's expression brightened immediately. "Oh thank goodness, you guys actually found Isolation Island's memory!"

"I knew that memory was bad news!" one blue mind worker called triumphantly. "I found it!"

"Good job Atta!" cheered on another.

"Well this works out great! Joy exclaimed, picking up Isolation Island's memory. "Now we can throw this into the memory dump, work together to find the other cores and then we can help Riley be back to normal!"

The enthused grin on Joy's face slowly faded, realizing the mind workers didn't seem to be in the mood for helping. "Uh, heh, you guys will help me, right? Cause I'm not exactly sure how long it'll take for my friends to get here and Riley could really, _really_ use our hel—"

"That's exactly it."

Joy stopped talking at the serious tone in Bobby's voice, a far cry from his usual goofy attitude. "Huh?"

"You have to try to help her with that project-you-to-the-Outside thing as much as you possibly can" Bobby urged.

"Oh sure, of course we'll help with that!" Joy assured, trying to still sound upbeat though she was becoming increasingly unnerved by the expressions on the mind worker's faces. "Riley's our girl! Sure, the Outside world's giving us a bit of a rough few days, but nothing we can't fix."

"Well if you can fix it like that, it will give her peace of mind. Literally," Bobby added, gazing at the gloomy atmosphere that remained both in the sky and around them. "It has to work! I-I'm not sure if it can, but it has to!"

"Why are you sounding so desperate?" Joy asked, even her own cheerful tone beginning to give way to confusion as even Harry looked away. "If it doesn't work we'll just help Riley get through it, like we always have..."

"I hate to admit it, but Mrs. Andersen was right," Paula said, looking up at Joy. "Riley has been enjoying her time here more than outside her mind, so you need to help her hold on to anything that can form a connection between her and the Outside World. If things get bad enough Outside, she..." the Mind Worker looked guilty, averting his eyes. An expression that the others adopted, of someone who knew a secret they were keeping from someone else. "She..."

Joy placed a hand to her head before giving the pair of mind workers a frantic look. "She _what_?"

Paula and Bobby looked at one another.

The hand that wasn't holding the orb fell limply to Joy's side as she inhaled slowly. "Guys... all I've ever wanted was to help Riley," the emotion insisted, her eyes becoming watery as she clutched the orb tighter to her chest, beginning to feel like it was her fault that the orb was there in the first place. "I'm her _Joy_. I'm supposed to help her be happy, but I messed up, and now because of me _everything's falling apart._ " Her voice broke as she looked forlornly out toward the direction of the Islands before looking down at the group once more. "Please. I _need_ to know what Riley's planning. I _need_ to know what she's refusing to tell us."

Despite Riley's plea to not tell the emotions, the mind workers knew that Riley's thought processes were far less than stable at this point. And Joy was distraught enough as it was...

After a few tense moments of silence, Paula stepped forward and spoke, wringing her hands together. They all had to do what they thought was best for Riley. And whether the girl liked it or not, at this point telling could be the only option that might save her. "Come over here," she said quickly, getting close to the riverbank and kneeling beside it.

Joy and knelt down by the river, dread pricking at her heart each second. What was she going to be shown that Riley wanted hidden from her?

"Do you know what this river is?"

Joy remembered having seen it earlier with Riley when flying over Imagination Land, but wasn't entirely sure what it was. "No."

"This is the Stream of Consciousness," Paula said. "It contains Riley's conscious thoughts. Listen."

Joy craned her neck toward the edge of the water. She thought she could hear a muffled voice saying something, seemingly frantic, but she couldn't make out the words.

"Uh... try sticking your head into it," Harry said quietly, looking just as apprehensive as the two mind workers.

Joy looked at the three for a few moments, growing increasingly nervous as she noted their solemn expressions. Whatever she was going to hear, she knew it wouldn't be something good. Taking a deep breath, Joy submerged her head beneath the water, anything that the trio said literally drowned out by what she _did_ hear.

Riley's voice. As clear as if Riley was directly speaking to her—in fact, even more so, seeing as Joy couldn't help but feel as if the words were partially within the confines of her own head. She held her breath, carefully listening.

" _If everyone's with me while I go to the Subconscious, I'll probably be fine. But ugh, I can't extend the hours in the night, I'll have to face tomorrow sometime!_ _What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?! My parents are probably gonna send me to some psych ward or something if they really think I'm nuts! If showing the emotions to everyone Outside doesn't work and they send me to a psych ward, that's my only option! No one thinks I'm crazy in the Mind World, they all understand me. They all love me. It has to be real... If worse comes to worse I have to do it. I have to find a way to stay here._ "

Joy's eyes widened in horror, nearly swallowing water as she pulled her head up coughing and gasping for air. She noticed the trio staring at her with expressions of guilt on their faces, knowing that she now knew what they did.

"... She wants to stay here, Joy," Paula confessed, unable to meet Joy's horrified and dumbstruck expression. "If she feels like she can't handle things out there, she wants to stay _here_. Forever."

Joy felt as if her own mind had gone numb. Riley wanted to stay forever in the Mind World if she felt that she couldn't trust anyone Outside? "But the only way she could stay here is if she..."

"Never wakes up."

* * *

 **A/N: Dun dun dun! Yeah, now you and Joy know what Riley's "last resort" is, and a bit more about the Unconscious for the time being! And don't worry, the next chapter will be up a LOT sooner than this one, probably in about a week or two, I'll err on the side of two just in case. ;) Thanks so much for sticking with me while waiting for this, hope you enjoyed, and remember to review!**


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